THE 



WALL'S END MINER; 



A BRIEF MEMOIR 



LIFE OF WILLIAM CRISTER : 

INCLUDING 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE CATASTROPHE OF 
JUNE 18th, 1835. 



BY JAMES EVERETT, 

AUTHOR OF 
' EDWIN," " THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH," ETC. 



NEW-YORK: 



PUBLISHED BY T. MASON AND G. LANE, 

For the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the Conference Office, 
200 Mulberry-street. 

J. Collord, Printer. 
1838. 






Am 

©tft 
Judge and Mrs, Isaac R.HItt 
July 3, 1933 



CONTENTS TO WALL'S END MINER. 
// 

CHAPTER I. 

Providence and grace— The birth and parentage of 
the subject of the memoir— He is left an orphan— bent 
early to the collieries— Meets with a pit accident— His / /a 
affection for his foster-mother— Exemption from gross 
immorality— Is playfully mischievous— The gayety ot 
his disposition— Enters a rifle corps— Is distinguished 
in the band— Invited to a class meeting— Conviction- 
Conversion— Learns to read— Suffers through his con- 
nection with the army. ^ a S e 9 
CHAPTER II. 
His person— His mind— Natural character— An apo- 
logy for his language and metaphors— Is partial to life 
rmth in religion — His love of class meeting — Is 
tly eccentric— His method of overcoming terrp- 
-Takes by surprise— His conduct in social 
tgs, in aid of his leader. 23 
CHAPTER III. 
Visits the chamber of the sick — Faith — His peculiar 
.node of pleading the promises — Brings a mariner to 
class — Individuality in prayer — His manner of beginning 
the Sabbath — Love of the Scriptures— Partiality to 
prayer meetings — Power in acting and painting— Start- 
ling effects of his conduct to juvenile transgressors 
in the pit — A sudden hell — Delights to set the minds 
of others imperceptibly afloat on different subjects — 
Listens to the voice of prayer — Is a nursing father to 
young converts — His anxiety for the salvation of sin- 
ners — A revival. 43 
CHAPTER IV. 
Love-feast addresses — Enlargement of soul — Caution 
in reference to love feasts — Preparation for heaven, un- 
der the similitude of waiting for a stage coach — His 
use of Scripture narrative — Occasional conduct in love- 
feasts and fellowship meetings — The recognition of 
saints in heaven — Is a publisher of glad tidings — A cha- 
racteristic stroke on preaching — His love of Christian 
ministers — Imposes silence on false reasoning — Wild 
fire — The superiority of deeds to words — Encourage- 
ment to expectants — Life a journey — Sudden illumi- 
nation — The ready reception of a blessing — Compre- 
hensive views — Perseverance and malignity of S^tan 



4 CONTENTS TO WALL'S END MINER. 

— The destruction of sin necessary to religious prospe- 
rity — Power over the devil. 66 
CHAPTER V. 
Progress in piety — His usual place of retirement — 
Answers to prayer — Prays for the preachers — Conver- 
sions — He is not to be taken in all things as a model 
— His exemption from frivolity — A peculiarity in his 
conceptions — His conduct under severe providential dis- 
pensations — Personal affliction — Attempts to do good in 
a pecuniary way—His benevolence of character-Grateful 
acknowledgments — He aids a poor widow — A love feast 
— Singing — A dream — Mr. Bramwell — A garden. 89 
CHAPTER VI. 

A few of his last days — Visit to one of his daugh- 
ters — Has a prayer-meeting in a field — Receives his 
last ticket — Remarkable expressions — Attends the bed 
of the dying — The spirit of prayer — Family worship — 
Descends the pit for the last time. — The Catastrophe 
— Religious aspect of the subject — Extent of the cala- 
mity — The rapidity with which the fire moved — Kind- 
ness, mixed with severity — The guilty spared — A mer- 
ciful providence in the timing of the event — The general 
distress occasioned. U-3 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Catastrophe continued— Pleasing indications 
of a preparation for another world in some of the ju- 
venile sufferers— The Scriptures— Prayer preferred 
to necessary food — Sunday-school teachers' festival, 
and its painful associations— Extorted confessions, and 
knowledge of character— Exemplification of Christian 
fortitude and resignation in the bereaved— Unruffled 
repose — Agony blended with tenderness — Painful dis- 
appointment—The mother and the Christian— Agoniz- 
ing reflections— Sources of consolation— Circumstances 
heightening the distress consequent on the loss of life, 
in the widow and the fatherless— Despair— Consequen- 
ces of the disfigured state of some of the bodies. 1^1 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Brief extracts from a journal of events—Prepara- 
tions for descent— Discoveries— Four persons found alive 
—Their state— Funeral ceremonies— A general visita- 
tion— Character of eight young men and boys—Sudden 
glory— Respect paid to Crister— Position in which he 
was found— Thomas Reaveley— Joseph Lawson— A 



Christian Sabbath and its duties— Concern for the 
young — Use of the whole. 



148 



PREFACE 



THE WALL'S END MINER. 



To persons remote from the scene where 
the subject of the following pages spent his 
days, and also unacquainted with its local his- 
tory, it may be stated that " WalVs End" is 
situated on the north side of the Tyne, in the 
county of Northumberland, immediately on 
the main road leading from Newcastle to 
Shields, and is about four miles, being an 
equal distance, from each place. The name 
is derived from the famous wall built by the 
Emperor Severus, A. D. 207, which stretched 
across the country, passed through the site 
of the present town of Newcastle, and here 
terminated its eastern course. The wall it- 
self was constructed of square stones — was 
twelve feet high and eight broad — and was 
every way, except on the edges of precipices, 
accompanied by a deep ditch or foss. The 
site of this wall, and the hollow of the foss, 
running parallel with the present turnpike- 
way, are still to be traced from Byker-Hill 
mill to the first milestone on the Shields road ; 
and a fragment of the wall itself is still to be 



6 wall's end minee. 

seen near the bridge oyer Denton Burn, a 
little west of Newcastle, 

But apart from Roman history, and inde- 
pendent of any knowledge of its association 
with the place, the "Wall's End" coal has 
heen long famed for its excellent quality ; so 
much so, indeed, that coal-dealers hare been 
detected in a fraudulent use of the name in 
the market,— pushing off under its sanction 
an inferior article. In this excellent mine, 
the subject of the present memoir was long 
, employed ; and the products of his toil warm- 
ed many a metropolitan hearth, from the cot- 
tage to the palace, and from the kitchen to the 
drawing room, — his own heart being often 
heated to intensity with the love of God, 
while in the midst of his numerous aspira- 
tions to Heaven the material was passing 
through his horn-worked hands. 

Several objections were presented to the 
writer's mind on first taking up the subject- 
objections much more discouraging than those 
which operated in the case of "The Village 
Blacksmith"— a work the success of which 
has exceeded any thing he could possibly 
have anticipated, and for which he expresses 
his gratitude both at the bar of criticism and 
to an indulgent public. For though the son 
of Vulcan was far his inferior in intellect, 
and might have kept his forge at work with 
the Tyne-Side miner's materials, — preserv- 
ing his own native warmth in full vigour, as 
did " Peter," in company with " the servants 



WALL ? S END 31INER. 1 

and officers, who had made a fire of coals," 
before which they " stood ;" and at which 
" they warmed themselves,'* yet he was in- 
vested with more associate circumstances, 
characters, and scenes, than his humble fol- 
lower, on many of which depends a consider- 
able portion of the interest of the narrative. 
The miner was too much localized to admit 
of variety arising from a change of society 
and of place ; in a description of which the 
reader often experiences more enjoyment 
than the actual spectator. The want of 
office, too, on which public character takes 
its stand, leading to various associations, as 
well as to intellectual development, was an- 
other defect. Hence it was, that the writer 
saw before him a narrative of sayings, rather 
than of doings ; and felt a danger of being 
hemmed within the limits of a bare delinea- 
tion of character, rather than that of having 
the privilege of expatiating at large over the 
whole course of a richly varied life. 

He recollected, however, that he had a 
candid and intelligent religious public to deal 
with, — persons who would look for no more 
from a miner than what the character of his 
circumstances would admit ; who would never 
look for the refinement of manners from the 
cottager which might reasonably be expected 
from the courtier — for the same knowledge 
from the uneducated plebeian as from the man 
of learning — or who would hope to see a 
prince in manners, and a Solomon in wisdom, 



8 wall's end miner. 

without promise or preparation, starting into 
existence out of a collier. Taste, perhaps, 
rather than judgment — as in the case of par- 
ticular artists, led the writer to decide upon 
his subject. He always prefers the thatched 
cottage in ruin, to the stately villa, trimmed 
and squared, for pictorial effect ; and the rude 
cascade to the polished stream. When he 
laid hold of his subject, he found him an ori- 
ginal of his kind ; and an original of any 
kind, whether in prose or verse, in science or 
mechanics, in the hamlet or in the city, will 
present some points of interest which may be 
considered peculiar, and claimed as personal 
property. An estate may be fertile, though 
not large ; and a garden will present as many 
beauties, and create as lively an interest, as a 
wide monotonous heath, distinguished only 
for its sterility. Here the candid reader will 
find a garden — not of flowers barely, but of 
fruit ; and though the inheritor was poor, the 
crop may be viewed as rich for heaven. If 
the writer should have been in error respect- 
ing the quality, the judicious reader will be 
able to detect, as the candid, it is hoped, will 
be disposed to bear with the mistake. 

J. E. 
Newcastle, Sept llth, 1835. 



WALL'S END MINER. 



CHAPTER L 

Providence and grace — The birth and parentage of the 
subject of the memoir — He is left an orphan — Sent early to 
the collieries — Meets with a pit accident— His affection for 
his foster-mother — Exemption from gross immorality — Is 
playfully mischievous — The gayety of his disposition — En- 
ters a ntle corps — Is distinguished in the band — Invited to a 
class meeting — Conviction — Conversion — Learns to read- 
Suffers through his connection with the army. 

Miners and mariners are among those 
classes in society who, in their lawful occu- 
pations, are much more exposed to sudden 
death, in the various perils by which they are 
surrounded, than others ; and it is a fact, in 
the history of Wesleyan Methodism, which 
ought not to be overlooked, that God, in in- 
finite mercy, directed the attention of its ex- 
traordinary founder, at the earliest period, 
first to the colliers of Kingswood, and next 
to those on the Tyne and the Wear, — taking 
a stride, so to speak, from one extremity of 
the land to the other,— leaving thickly popu- 
lated districts unvisited between, — and thus, 
to persons in the greatest danger, offering the 
only means of everlasting safety. However 
this feature of divine Providence may be 
viewed by others, to a person divinely en- 
lightened, the subject will come with a pecu- 



10 wall's end miner. 

liarly impressive power to the heart ; and no 
one, possessed of genuine Christian philan- 
thropy, but must exult in the more than usual 
harvest reaped for the garner of God among 
this death-exposed race of industrious men. 
The same Being who has so often met them in 
the terrors of his Providence has, in this in- 
stance, met them in the riches of his grace — 
amply compensating the perils of the one in 
the blessings of the other. 

William Crister, who was born in the 
Close, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the county 
of Northumberland, December 26th, 1779, 
was a trophy of no ordinary worth, among 
thousands of others, who graced the triumphs 
of the Redeemer, while following his steps 
upon earth. His father was a bass-maker, 
and had six children in all, of whom William 
was the youngest. His mother, when he was 
about eighteen months old, was seized with 
an illness which soon terminated in her dis- 
solution; not long after which, his father also 
died. The mother, during her illness, re- 
quested a friend to take care of William ; and 
that friend, kindly acceding to the request, 
removed him to the collieries, where he was 
brought up in the lowly walks of life. 

When in the seventh year of his age he 
was sent to work in the pit at Bigge's Main ; 
and having laboured there the space of four 
years, the family with whom he resided re- 
moved to Wall's End Colliery, whither he 
accompanied them, and in which he was 



wall's end miner. 11 

employed the remainder of his days. While at 
Bigge's Main, he had a narrow escape when 
at work ; for so near was the fire, during the 
explosion, that it drove some small pieces of 
coal into his face, the blue marks of which he 
carried with him to the end of his pilgrimage. 

The family, under whose roof he was rear- 
ed, treated him with great affection, and his 
orphan heart clung with equal tenderness and 
gratitude to his foster-mother. He was ad- 
vised, when he grew up, to quit the house by 
those who ought to have known better, and to 
appropriate his wages to his own use. But 
he had too tender a nature cruelly to abandon 
old age, and too deep a sense of the kindness 
received to forget it. When the woman was 
sick to whom he had looked up as to a mother, 
he provided whatever was within the range 
of his power for her comfort, and gave her 
the whole of his earnings as long as she lived. 
With this family he continued till he was 
about one and twenty years of age, when he 
entered into the marriage state ; remaining 
from eight to nine years more an utter stran- 
ger to experimental religion. 

Previously to his marriage, he w r as distin- 
guished for a decent morality, for honesty 
and industry ; nor less so when he was sur- 
rounded by a family of his own. He was 
sportive rather than vicious, — would have 
raised the laugh rather than have produced 
the tear by imparting pain, — and would have 
led the way to harmless amusement rather 



12 wall's end miner. 

than have followed in the wake of crime. As 
a key to character, it may be stated that when 
he found a neighbour's door open, and the 
house without an inmate, he would have step- 
ped in unperceived, and would have concealed 
in one of the most unlikely places to look for 
it, either some article of value, or something 
likely to be wanted for immediate use ; watch- 
ing the while for the return of the careless 
absentee, in order to observe the workings 
of the mind, to see the first surprise or fear, 
and to furnish an opportunity of exercising 
affected sympathy in the presumed loss. 
This led to occasional falsehood, which his 
unenlightened mind placed to the account 
of innocent amusement. After he had amused 
himself some time, with demure look, and 
soft speech, he would then point to the place 
of concealment — turn upon his heel with a 
laugh — and leave them as much overjoyed 
with the discovery as vexed with his folly, — 
the persons often sending after him the near- 
est article they could hurl without serious 
injury to either. An unoccupied house — 
though but for a moment — would have been 
deemed a favourable occasion by the un- 
principled for purposes of plunder ; but 
though destitute of the fear of God, Crister 
was honest to man. 

The natural gayety of his spirit, and bene- 
volence of his disposition, leading him more 
into the company of the facetious than the 
facinorous, he was consequently less exposed 



wall's end miner. 13 

than many around him to the effects of pro- 
fane habits. No society was allowed to be 
sad in his presence. Having considerable 
wit and fancy of his own — being generally 
on the look-out for the droll, quaint, smart 
sayings of others — and possessing what, in 
humble life, might be deemed considerable 
facundity, he was very often the harlequin of 
the persons with whom he associated, and 
was sure to renovate the flagging attention 
and overworked spirits of any who might be 
disposed to sink. 

One circumstance which contributed not 
a little to his notoriety in his unrenewed 
state was the establishment of a corps of 
riflemen, during the continental struggle, of 
which Mr. Buddie was captain, and in the 
band of which Crister alternately beat the 
great drum, and amused himself with the 
tambarine. Though an adept in handling 
both instruments, yet it was in the use of the 
latter he particularly excelled ; and being 
exceedingly flexile, active, and varied, in his 
numerous evolutions, — employing the. heel, 
the toe, the knee, the forehead, the chin, the 
back part of the head, the shoulder, the elbow, 
knuckles, and fingers, — passing from one to 
another, and from one extremity to the other, 
with the utmost ease, rapidity, and grace, he 
attracted immense crowds to see his perform- 
ance. While others delighted the ear with 
their music, Crister fixed the eye by his an- 
tics, — the music itself appearing very often a 



14 wall's end miner. 

mere accompaniment to an exhibition in 
which he stood as the chief actor. But 
though extremely partial to music, and al- 
most living in its sound, he was never able 
to read it. His ear was quick and good ; 
and he would have caught a tune as expedi- 
tiously, and fixed it nearly as permanently, as 
a person could have committed it to paper. 

William Kennedy, who was anxious to pro- 
mote the moral arid religious welfare of his 
fellow-creatures, pressed his own brother 
Thomas, and W. Crister, to accompany him 
to Mr. Reay's class, which met in the house 
of the latter, at Carville. They both com- 
plied ; and though Crister entered the room 
a perfect stranger to the odiousness and cri- 
minality of moral evil, he left it with a deep 
concern for the salvation of his soul ; and 
continued a member of the class to the day 
of his death — a period of about twenty-six 
years, having united himself to it, January 
17th, 1809. He had attended preaching at Car- 
ville Chapel some time previously to this, and 
manifested more than usual thoughtfulness, 
which induced W. Kennedy to give him the 
invitation. But still he remained unscathed 
in conscience. Here, however, the " scales" 
fell from his eyes ; he beheld himself in " a 
horrible pit of miry clay ;" and, what was 
worse, he found that the bottom of the pit 
constituted the lid which opened to the 
mouth of hell. From thence, he sent up his 
piercing wailings to heaven, and " the Lord 



wall's end miner. 15 

inclined unto" him, " and heard" his " cry." 
The " coals of juniper," remarkable for their 
intense heat, had entered the soul. Convic- 
tion raged like a fire within, and drank up his 
spirits. His vivacity forsook him; and he 
wept for very anguish of soul. 

His repentance was deep and genuine, but 
not of long continuance, as to its "weepings 
and wailings;" for in a few weeks he obtain- 
ed a clear sense of his acceptance with God, 
through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

He fixed the eye of his soul upon a cru- 
cified Redeemer ; by which act he was raised 
out of the " horrible pit of miry clay," in 
which he had found himself so deeply 
plunged, — and which may be illustrated by 
a dream which a person had, who, like him- 
self, was in search of salvation. The per- 
son in question dreamed, according to state- 
ment, that he lay at the bottom of a coal pit, 
without the least apparent possible way of 
escape. After remaining in that state some 
time, he turned his eye up the shaft, and saw 
a small circle of the dark blue heavens. While 
looking with despondency, and yet wistfully, 
for some time, a beautiful star appeared, 
stealing out of the deep azure above, — 
rendering that azure still more deep as its 
own rays became more beautifully bright. 
This luminary stood directly over him ; and 
one of his first thoughts was — " This is the 
Star of Bethlehem." In the act of gazing 
upon it, with some degree of admiration, he 



16 wall's end miner. 

thought he felt its attractive influence, and 
was by almost imperceptible degrees raised 
toward the day. By some mishap, he lost 
sight of it, and fell; and on looking upward 
again, it had disappeared. He lay, and 
mourned his wretchedness, — wishing for its 
re-appearance. After a short time had elapsed, 
it again stole through the gloom, and stood 
over him as lovely as before. Again he 
gazed with intensity — again he felt its at- 
tractive force — and again he arose. But the 
eye once more betrayed its trust — and that 
moment he fell. His distress was propor- 
tionally great ; and what seemed to augment 
it was, he despaired, while in the very act of 
longing, looking, and watching, of ever again 
being favoured with a gleam of its rays. It 
once more, however, refreshed his vision. 
He looked — he rose — the eye was true — he 
reached the top — and awoke in an ecstacy. — 
Thus it was with Crister. He beheld Jesus, 
as the bright, the Morning Star, — as " the 
Star of Jacob," rising on the darkness of hu- 
man nature, and shedding his healing beams 
upon the lost sons of Adam. Faith was re- 
presented to him under the notion of atten- 
tively viewing an object, and he was accosted 
in the Bible with, " Look unto me, all ye 
ends of the earth, and be ye saved." He was 
taught that though the brazen serpent was 
lifted up, it was only available, in its heal- 
ing influence, to those who looked upon it. 
He was taught, also, that the virtue was not 



wall's end miner. 17 

so much in the serpent as in the look. Here 
he was able to perceive a difference between 
the type and the anti-type ; for he found real 
virtue in Christ — but still that virtue only 
went out of him, in proportion as he looked 
upon him with the eye, or laid hold of him 
by the hand of faith, He stretched forth his 
arm, in pursuance of the last figure of speech, 
as he had often done at the bottom of the 
shaft, and, empty-handed, laid hold of the 
mercy of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, 
as upon a golden chain, and maintained his 
hold of the last link till it drew him up to 
heaven. The Lord, in the expressive lan- 
guage of Elihu, brought " back his soul from 
the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the 
living ;" and in the farther figurative language 
of the psalmist, " set his feet upon a rock, 
and established his goings." He was now no 
longer among the " slime pits" in " the vale 
of Siddim." He had firm footing. 

The room in which the class met, was 
afterward converted into a shop ; and with 
that room he had many agreeable associa- 
tions. " I can go," he would say, " to the 
very spot where the Lord set my soul at 
liberty. There is a hogshead of sugar now 
standing upon the place :" a reflection to him 
much sweeter than the fruit of the cane to the 
palate, and through which he could look up 
to heaven with "Abba, Father," dwelling 
upon his lips, and freedom in his heart. It 
is a remarkable fact, that some of our best 
% 



18 wall's end miner. 

feelings are revived on our having certain 
trifling localities brought before the eye. 
" If an old man," says Foster, " wishes to 
animate for a moment the languid and faded 
ideas which he retains of his youth, he might 
walk with his crutch across the green where 
he once played with companions who are 
now probably laid to repose in another spot 
not far off. An aged saint may meet again 
some of the affecting ideas of his early piety 
in the place where he first thought it happy 
to pray. A walk in a meadow, the sight of a 
bank of flowers, perhaps even of some one 
flower in a landscape with the tints of au- 
tumn, the descent into a valley, the brow 
of a mountain, the house where a friend has 
been met, or has resided, or has died, have 
often produced a much more lively recollec- 
tion of our past feelings, and of the objects 
and events which caused them, than the 
most perfect description could have done; 
and we have lingered a considerable time 
for the pensive luxury of thus resuming the 
departed state." The sight of the hogs- 
head, which was stationary, reminded Cris- 
ter years afterward, what took place when 
kneeling on the boards beneath it. 

Not satisfied with his attempts to pray in 
public at first, and being deficient in confi- 
dence, he laboured to conceive a prayer in 
his mind, and to preserve it in recollection. 
This he sought to repeat on different occa- 
sions ; but feeling himself trammelled with 



wall's end miner. 19 

it, and finding it also injurious to the free 
spirit of prayer, he laid it aside, and depended 
upon the spontaneous effusions of the mo- 
ment : remarking, that he " walked by the 
aid of a crutch at first, but was soon able to 
go alone." 

Being extremely partial to class meeting, 
he never, with the exception of once, ab- 
sented himself from church fellowship, un- 
less lawfully detained. At the time alluded 
to, he was the subject of strong temptation ; 
and instead of going to the meeting, he 
strolled down the banks of the Tyne. He 
soon felt that he had entered into the tempt- 
ation ; and after much prayer, he vowed be- 
fore the Lord — a vow which he was able to 
keep to the day of his death, that he would 
never more give place to Satan on that sub- 
ject. " If," said he, when cautioning the 
absentee in social meetings, " those per- 
sons who are in the habit of neglecting their 
classes only felt what I experienced that 
night, they would vow, like me, never to do 
so again." He was a perfect model for 
others, in his attention to the public, social, 
and private worship of God ; and as in his 
class, so among the free sittings in the cha- 
pel, he was always to be found in his place, 
and would have his own seat, with which he 
was invariably indulged. 

One serious inconvenience under which 
he laboured was his inability to read. An 
imperfect knowledge of the letters of the 



20 wall's end miner. 

English alphabet was all he had acquired ; 
and in the thirtieth year of his age he had 
to return to childhood, and was seen anxi- 
ously pouring over his "Horn Book" and 
" Tom Thumb," surrounded by his off- 
spring, — looking through these initiatory- 
trifles to the New Testament, and exulting 
in the hope of one day reaching the foun- 
tain of knowledge, and medium of life. By 
close application, he was soon able to read 
the sacred page, both in private and in his 
family ; and to exclaim — " I esteem the 
words of thy mouth more than my neces- 
sary food. The law of the Lord is perfect, 
converting the soul : the testimony of the 
Lord is sure, making wise the simple ; the 
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
heart: the commandment of the Lord is 
pure, enlightening the eyes : the judgments 
of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
gether, more to be desired than fine gold ; 
sweeter also than the honey, and the honey- 
comb." In his first readings, he was like a 
person entering upon a newly-discovered 
country ; he sat down by the skirts or seat 
shore of knowledge ; but on improving, he 
entered farther and farther into the inte- 
rior of the land; till at length, on gaining a 
small eminence, as it were, he saw the truth 
of God expanding into a greatness beyond 
the reach of his own sight, while every 
thing seemed written as with a sun-beam. 
The opaque medium was changed for the 



wall's end miner. 21 

transparent ; and he beheld with awe, sur- 
prise, and admiration the wonders of God's 
law. The Bible was to him not only a " light 
to the feet and a lamp to the path," but a 
kind of sacred Nepenthe, in every moment 
of discouragement. There he found recipes, 
to employ the language of the medical stu- 
dent, which proved a cordial to his spirits, 
and imparted vigour to his arm. " I was 
born twice," he would say ; " once at New- 
castle, and another time at Carville. At my 
second birth, I was as unable to read as at 
my first ; but now, I can not only read my 
Bible, but my title to heaven." 

While he was making progress in know- 
ledge and in piety, there remained one af- 
flicting drawback to his happiness. The 
rifle corps in which he had figured for seve- 
ral years remained in arms upward of twelve 
months after his conversion ; and various cir- 
cumstances and arguments concurred to bind 
him to the band to which he had been linked. 
It was a season of scruple and tenderness of 
conscience ; he was not well grounded in reli- 
gion ; and his experience and knowledge 
were ill able to meet the sophisms, tempt- 
ations, and bufTetings, with which he was 
assailed. The tambarine in the same hand, 
before and after conversion, seemed alto- 
gether another thing; and the eye of the 
public, as quick to perceive as to associate, 
was upon him for evil, as it had been upon 
him for good. The tambarine had been his 



22 wall's end miner. 

idol, and he himself had been the idol of the 
multitude. Of that idol he was obliged to 
maintain his hold, when idolatry had ceased ; 
and in the act of handling it, he was not less 
" ashamed" than the artificer in iron would 
have been, on receiving a visit from the Pro- 
phet Isaiah, while forging idols in his smithy, 
after his enlightenment, and of whom it is 
said, " the smith with the tongs both work- 
eth in the coals, and fashioneth it with ham- 
mers, and worketh it with the strength of his 
arms." Poor Crister had to work on, and 
to throw around his arms, for the enter- 
tainment of others, while the spirit of his 
employment was entombed within him. It 
was not like the graver evolution of the re- 
gular soldier, or even the more sober and 
stately march of a person with the bassoon, 
or of persons with any other dozen of instru- 
ments ; but the only article in the band that 
required a harlequin for its management, and 
in the hand of one who had once been a mas- 
ter, as he had now become a slave. He sigh- 
ed, he groaned, he prayed, he watched, he 
blushed, till the dissolution of the corps, 
when he flew off like a bird escaped from 
the falcon, or an eagle — on being renewed 
in strength, toward the sun. Though the 
divine Being, in his own language — and to 
keep up the allusion with regard to pro- 
phetic times, " created the smith that blow- 
eth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth 
forth an instrument for his work;" yet he 



WALL'S END 3IIXER. 23 

did not create him to make idols, and much 
less to fall down before them. Crister felt, 
that though God had endowed him with 
amazing agility, yet it was not to be em- 
ployed in that way — either for self-idoliza- 
tion, or for the boast of his friends ; and 
that his position and employment had been 
the occasion of sin, as it was now the cause 
of much mental distress. 



CHAPTER II. 

His person — His mind — Natural character — An apology 
for his language and metaphors — Is partial to life and warmth 
in religion — His love of class meeting — Is innocently eccen- 
tric — His method of overcoming temptation — Takes by sur- 
prise — His conduct in social meetings, in aid of his leader. 

There was nothing remarkably prepos- 
sessing in Crister's general appearance. He 
was about the middle size — rather slender — 
and had a little of the pitman's gait, which is 
not less visible to the eye of an observer 
than that of a tailor. His complexion was 
between the brown and the pale, but with a 
few shades more of the latter than the for- 
mer, and a slight intermixture of the sallow. 
The face was inclined to the small and the 
round — rather a disproportionate width across 
the cheek bones— partially narrowing above 
and below — but still not so much as to take 
away the general character of rotundity — 



24 wall's end miner. 

with short, dark, sleek hair. The nose was 
a little aquiline, the lips rather thin, and the 
mouth the ordinary size. It was in the eye — 
dark and sparkling, that the whole of the 
expression lay, and which showed not only 
the inner man, but almost continually lit up 
the countenance with sunshine. It was not 
large ; and yet, when his voice conveyed to 
the ear the conceptions of the mind, and the 
impassioned emotions of the heart, it would 
seem to dilate, and now and then possessed a 
brilliancy and fascination, from which it was 
as impossible to turn away as it was difficult 
steadfastly to behold ; differing as much from 
the calm, cold, and colourless eye, that seems 
to indicate little short of a delight in human 
misery, and produces a sensation of fear, as 
the chiselled marble differs from an object 
sparkling with all the vivacity of light. 

Persons who can penetrate beyond the sur- 
face will find, by discoursing with some men, 
the general truth of a sentiment penned by 
the writer of the Apocryphal book of Eccle- 
siasticus — that " a man may be known by his 
look, (or his eye,) and one that hath under- 
standing by his countenance." Not that we 
can read in such a tablet what a man shall 
henceforth be, but what he is at present ; and 
this may be allowed, without the charge of a 
too superstitious adherence to the art of the 
metoposcopist. Man has not unaptly been 
compared to " an harmonious organ," and the 
more the simile is examined, the more will its 



WALL'S END MINER. 25 

truth appear, It is the heart that tunes and 
plays it — the tongue that gives utterance in 
song — and every portion of it, however mi- 
nute, yields a distinct and appropriate sound, 
varying the effect agreeably to each varied 
affection. Nor can it be otherwise ; for the 
separate parts are sustained by the spirits, 
and the spirits are the genuine issue of the 
heart. Hence, as the heart is affected with 
love, joy, sorrow, fear, or hatred, it strikes a 
different key, and sends forth a different note. 
When the heart touches one chord, and the 
tongue makes melody to another, the speech 
and the countenance are at variance ; and 
the man who cannot perceive such a sole- 
cism, and observe the dissonance, may justly 
accuse his senses of weakness and imperfec- 
tion. There is no occasion to close in with 
the absurd maxim — fit only for the blind, and 
highly seasoned as it is — " That it is neces- 
sary to eat a bushel of salt with a man, be- 
fore you can perfectly understand him." 
Sincerity is readable anywhere ; and hypo- 
crisy is soon detected. As to the immediate 
subject in hand, the sweet glow of religious 
feeling in the heart gave a heavenly expres- 
sion to his countenance, and a melting ten- 
derness to a naturally quick and penetrating 
eye — imparting a something to each, distinct 
and undefinable, yet always pleasurable, like 
the bloom to the fruit and the scent to the 
flower. 

There is not unfrequently connected with 



26 wall's end miner. 

men of uncultivated mind and exuberant 
fancy, a degree of forwardness and pertness, 
highly offensive to persons of taste and retir- 
ed habits. An active mind is generally on 
the advance, and gives the meeting to persons 
before they are quite prepared for its out- 
pourings. But though Crister was prompt, 
he was not obtrusive ; though earnest, not 
bold or impudent; though cheerful, not tri- 
fling ; — always ready, and yet never forward. 
There was amazing vivacity ; a facility for 
catching hold of little incidents and passing 
events, and converting them to religious 
purposes, either foi his own personal im- 
provement in piety, or the advantage of 
those around him. He gave a person the 
notion of a swallow on the wing, — darting 
through the air with ease and rapidity, — and 
selecting its provision from among the insect 
tribes, without impeding its flight; — insects 
in swarms, but often invisible to others than 
itself. As he was not a regularly authorized 
public speaker, beyond relating his experi- 
ence at a'love-feast and in his class, the faculty 
of quickly laying hold of any thing capable 
of affording nutriment either to the affections 
or the intelligence, was particularly percepti- 
ble in prayer. In this respect, some of his 
prayers, though exceedingly imperfect as 
models, comprised the substance of power- 
fully impressive and important lectures. He 
would sometimes web one thought round 
another — dexterously disentangle the whole — 



wall's end miner. 27 

take them up separately — and then shoot away 
with them, like so many meteors, one after 
another, glaring through the midnight hea- 
vens ; and at other times, more nearly as- 
similated to the lightning, he would come 
flash after flash upon the spirit — sudden and 
startling ; and in both cases accompanied 
with a power and novelty of expression 
that left the mind in a state of pleasing or 
painful suspense, according to the subject, 
and rarely without a fixity of purpose to 
improve. Fully to enjoy him, however, it 
was necessary for a person to divest himself 
occasionally of those little tastes he might 
have acquired by reading and society : these 
laid aside, Crister's intellectual character 
was at once appreciated ; his prayers and 
his converse became a spiritual repast. He 
was rather of an uncultivated than of a natu- 
rally coarse intellectual fibre, and would have 
admitted both of polish and expansion. 

As he had been in his unrenewed state, so 
he was found in a state of grace, — sparkling 
and active, — active as fire itself. It is a re- 
mark of Locke, that " the divine Being never 
unmakes the man in forming the Christian." 
Natural character remains the same, — all the 
faculties as at the first. The supernatural 
light which is poured into the mind from 
above, never extinguishes that which is na- 
tural ; it will aid, but not destroy it. Every 
peculiar temperament, as well as mental fa- 
culty, is carried into religion. Here is one, 



28 wall's end miner. 

who is naturally gloomy ;— another, with the 
gayetyand cheerfulness of the lark; — a third, 
all meekness ; — and a fourth, like a piece of 
touchwood, instantly in a blaze, on the 
smallest provocation. The list might be en- 
larged ; but sufficient is advanced to enable 
a person to carry out the subject to any given 
length. Since religion, therefore, does not 
destroy natural character, but improves and 
sanctifies it — or, in other words, turns the 
stream into another channel, or directs the 
flame to another quarter, hence it is, that we 
have the same variety in the church as in the 
world. Peter, who was naturally rash and 
precipitate, was still forward to every good 
word and work, on his conversion to God. 
Saul, who was a fiery bigot, became the 
zealous apostle — burning with ardour in the 
cause against which he had breathed out 
threatenings and slaughter. John, who pos- 
sessed great tenderness of spirit, could scarce- 
ly either speak or write on any other subject, 
except the love of God to man. If a steady 
eye be not fixed on natural character, there 
will not only be no correct portrait of the 
man, but the whole narrative will associate 
with those biographies which stand in certain 
publications like so many tomb-stones in a 
country church-yaid, distinguished chiefly 
by the name, and with little more informa- 
tion to the public, than that the subjects 
buried beneath a few commonplace remarks 
— lived and died. But in cases where the 



wall's end mixer. 29 

power of delineation is possessed, while there 
is just cause of complaint on the one hand, of 
a cautious reserve, which prevents the whole 
man from coming into view, there is equal 
danger of excess, on the other ; for artifice 
is confessed to have become such an embel- 
lisher of God's handy- work, that a person 
dare scarcely be what nature made him, 
through fear of being counted a lusus natures. 
William Crister was a man and a Christian ; 
and like all other trees of the Lord's planting, 
he bore two kinds of fruit — human and divine. 
Some of his similes might seem to demand 
an apology, because of their familiarity and 
approach to low life. But there was a keep- 
ing in this. Like the prophet Amos, who 
chose to speak of his own art — having been 
"among the herdmen of Tekoa," and to 
select comparisons from rural life, he drew 
upon the circumstances in which he was 
placed, and the society in which he was 
brought up, for purposes of illustration : nor 
could those who might be disposed to censure 
him for a want of taste in his selections, adopt 
a style more suitable, were they to descant 
on the same subjects, to the same persons, 
and in similar circumstances. But whatever 
might be said of his taste or of his fancy, his 
judgment was generally found correct. It 
has been stated with truth, in reference to 
the sacred writers, that the same heavenly 
spirit which inspired Isaiah and Daniel in the 
palace, inspired David and Amos in their 
shepherd's tents: always choosing suitable 



30 wall's end miner. 

interpreters of his will ; and sometimes per- 
fecting praise out of the mouths of babes : at 
one time using the eloquence of some ; at an- 
other, making others eloquent, to subserve 
His great purposes. And thus, it may be 
added, the divine Being still employs the poor 
rustic, as well as the man of refined taste and 
superior attainments, each in his own way, 
and working with his own tools — tools fitted 
to the hand, and commensurate with the men- 
tal energies by Which they are directed. 
" You must all blend," said Crister to one of 
his daughters, when he visited the family ; 
" Yes, you must live and love like Christians, 
— blend like eggs in a pudding; for though 
distinct from each other, before they are put 
into the basin, yet when beat up by the hand, 
they all mix and flow together, and become 
one — a complete round whole, and fit for use." 
This is somewhat like the metaphorical lan- 
guage of the author of " Cardiphonia, or the 
Utterance of the Heart," who remarked that 
he always wished his Calvinism to resemble 
a piece of sugar in a cup of tea — felt every- 
where, but seen nowhere. 

The simile employed by the honest collier to 
his daughter, was recollected after he was gone; 
whereas, if he had employed — supposing him 
capable of it — a classical allusion, or more 
exalted imagery, it would all have been lost 
upon her. What he said was left behind, 
and would be present with her, both in her 
preparations and at her daily repast. Exhor- 



wall's end miner. 31 

tations to peace and unity were common with 
him ; he hated domestic broils and ecclesi- 
astical divisions, and was never known to 
mix himself up with them. His occupation 
furnished him with reasons against this ; for 
" as coals "are to burning coals, and wood to 
fire ; so is a contentious man to kindle strife." 
Not being the subject of petty jealousies and 
heart-burnings himself, he fenced others from 
them by his advice and exhortations. "Jea- 
lousy" was to him, as to the wise man, — 
"cruel as the grave : the coals thereof, coals 
of lire, which hath a most vehement flame." 

Looking at his language, abstracted from 
his similes, though in the rudest state, and 
with all the peculiarities of the Northumbrian 
dialect, which, in many instances, would be 
as difficult to spell, as it would be for a person 
in the south to pronounce, yet there was 
great force in it. The observations of Lan- 
dor, in his " Examination" of one of the first 
geniuses of his age, will apply here. " How 
many of our words," says he, "have more in 
them than we think of! Give a countryman a 
plough of silver, and he will plough with it 
all the season, and never know its substance. 
'Tis thus with our daily speech. What riches 
lie hidden in the vulgar tongue of the poor- 
est and most ignorant? What flowers of pa- 
radise lie under our feet, with their beauties 
and parts undistinguished and undiscerned, 
from having been daily trodden on!" 

When the subject of these pages took his 



32 wall's end miner. 

accustomed " walk about Zion," whose 
" walls are continually before" the Lord, he 
was sure to linger the longest on that spot, 
and to frequent it the most, which showed the 
brightest gilding, and glowed with the warm- 
est beams of " the Sun of righteousness." 
He had a keen perception of the good and 
the lively, and a strong relish for the more 
animated exercises of public worship. If an 
official person appeared to have but little of 
the life of God in his devotions, he was cer- 
tain to have Crister's prayer of " clap fire 
to him, Lord," sent to Heaven on his behalf. 
The honest collier knew, as well as those who 
were employed with him, that coal — whether 
embedded in the mine, or exposed in open 
day, could only be known in its real value by 
the application of fire. In this, in his esteem, 
consisted its real use to society. The Chris- 
tian pulpit to him, resembled the grate only 
in the house of the Lord, and the preacher — 
untouched by heaven, the coal; — all dead, 
and dull, and sombre, without the fire of God, 
like the Promethean heat, to animate his dis- 
courses. A man, doling and drawling out 
eternal truth by parsimonious sparks or 
shreds, and with all the chilling frigidity of 
a hard winter's frost — truth, which ought to 
be steeped in all the sublimities of heaven, 
uttered with the warmth of a seraph, and 
driven home — absolutely wedged into the hu- 
man soul, with all the weight which the un- 
seen realities of an invisible world can give 



wall's end mixer. 33 

t it, — a man, thus dealing- with truth, may 
assume the appearance of a coal, but not a 
"coal of fire ;" and would — to such a per- 
son as Crister, be nearly as useful in the " hor- 
rible pit," as when only apparently " brought 
to bank." There may be vehemence, it is 
true, — mere animal fire, — much that may be 
traced up to the temperament, and peculiar 
constitution of both body and mind ; and 
persons will be found occasionally to ex- 
plode revivals, and to employ these terms, 
not only for the purpose of undervaluing 
the zealous exertions of their fellow Chris- 
tians, whose labours operate like a standing 
rebuke to their own, but as an indirect apo- 
logy for their indifference : but still, though 
there may be false fire, — all is not counter- 
feit; there yet exists^ the blessed reality; 
a copy always implies an original. Though 
" Nadab and Abihu" offer " strange fire be- 
fore the Lord," yet their father Aaron has the 
real thing : of whom it is said, " he shall take 
a censor full of burning coals of fire from off 
the altar before the Lord — and he shall put 
the incense upon the tire — that the cloud of 
the incense may cover the mercy seat that is 
upon the testimony." And mistaken as the 
one may be for the other, in some particular 
cases, there can be no mistake with regard to 
the cold and the dead. No dispute can arise 
here: the case is decided, there are no signs 
— no effects — you feel nothing; and though 
you hear the voice, it ia from the tomb. And 
3 



34 wall's end miner. 

are the lifeless to set themselves up as judges 
of the life of others ? Will the public allow 
a blind man to decide upon colours, or a per- 
son deaf from his birth to pass judgment 
upon sounds % Such persons may deceive 
themselves, but they cannot deceive others. 
Crister would have smiled at a corpulent man, 
though he knew nothing of either his eating 
or drinking to excess, delivering a lecture on 
abstinence. He would have been grieved 
with a man, had he heard him talking about 
being zealously affected in a good cause, 
while he himself remained a piece of per- 
sonified frost work, with his hands in his 
pockets, and without " a turned hair," or a 
movement extraordinary. Uncultivated as 
he was, he knew from the Bible, that, on one 
of the seraphim touching the lips of the evan- 
gelical prophet with a live coal from off the 
altar, he both rolled with the thunder and 
flashed with the lightning. The seer not 
only became a flame of Are himself, but 
was the honoured instrument of animating 
others, who, on the sunny side of Zion, were 
enabled, in more modern language, to ex- 
claim — " It is good to be here." The psal- 
mist could say, " My heart was hot within 
me; while I was musing the fire burned: 
then spake I with my tongue." And the dis- 
ciples could interrogate each other ; " Did 
not our heart burn within us, while he talked 
with us by the way, and while he opened to 
us the Scriptures?" But the royal bard 



wall's end mixer. 35 

would be much more animated with the fire, 
than without it ; and a minister will never 
utter " words that burn" — will never set the 
heart of another on fire, with all his attempts 
to open the Scriptures, unless the fire be first 
kindled in himself. Without this, a person 
may as well attempt to light a fire with a 
piece of unsmitten, cold, polished steel : and 
where fire exists, and is kept up, it will soon 
render itself visible by its effects. Without 
the fire of heaven, a preacher is like an icicle 
suspended from the eave of a house in a hard 
frost — clear, but long and cold. It is an arti- 
cle in the poetic creed of Horace, that he 
who would draw tears from others, must 
first show his own; and certainly, he that 
would inflame others, must be in earnest him- 
self. It would have been as serious a matter 
for Cristqr, in a religious sense, as for the 
" star-gazers" in the days of Isaiah, if there 
had not been " a coal to warm at, or a fire to 
sit before." Christian ministers, in the view 
of such a man, would be beheld like " the 
man clothed with linen," in the vision of 
Ezekiel, and would be accosted with, i; Go in 
between the wheels, even under the cherub, 
and fill thine hand with coals of fire from be- 
tween the cherubim, and scatter them over 
the city." 

If there was one religious ordinance more 
than another, of prudential establishment, in 
which he felt himself at home, it was.that of 
class-meeting ; and there it was — united, of 



36 wall's end miner. 

course, to a fine devotional spirit, that he 
displayed most of native character. That 
such means should have been esteemed and 
enjoyed by him, is only what ought to be ex- 
pected from the circumstance of both his 
conviction and conversion having commenced 
and been completed there. He generally 
opened his addresses with — '* I was just 
thinking, friends," — and then would have fol- 
lowed whatever might have occupied the 
mind. 

Sitting in his accustomed place, the mer- 
cies of the previous week would first awaken 
his attention. " Praised be the Lord," he 
has been heard to say, " I have got through 
another week, unhurt in body, soul, and 
mind ; I never had a bone broken in my life." 

When reflecting on the state of those who 
had met with him in church-fellowship, but 
had been removed from earth by a sudden 
stroke, or by lingering illness, — " Aye," he 
would observe, like a prophet in vision, " I 
think I see them stretching out their necks, 
and looking over the battlements of heaven, 
to see whether or not we are coming — whe- 
ther we have not lost our way. Bless the 
Lord, we are on the road." In the course 
of the same meeting, and in allusion to the 
same subject, but without any prefatory re- 
marks, he would abruptly observe, " We 
should always be ready when the knock 
comes to the door." On one occasion, after 
a breathless pause, subsequent to the last ^x- 



wall's end mixer. 37 

pression, he applied his knuckles to the 
boards, startling those who sat next him, ra- 
pidly and energetically inquiring, " Are you 
ready?" replying, •' Yes ;" next adding, 
" Come away then." To persons who knew 
him not, as well as those who were acquaint- 
ed with his capabilities, there would appear 
something like trick in the action ; but the 
mind was so completely absorbed with devo- 
tional subjects, that he was less like a con- 
scious being at such periods than at others ; 
and seemed as likely, in such a state, to be 
roused from his reveries by the sound of his 
own hand, as to awaken the attention of those 
around him. Any thing like manoeuvre in 
the concerns of the soul is to be reprehend- 
ed ; because it not only argues a want of 
sincerity on the part of the agent, but is 
beneath the dignity of a God of infinite per- 
fection to sanction. There is, however, such 
a feeling conveyed to the heart, as well as 
such an indescribable something in the man- 
ner, subsisting always between that which is 
genuine and that which is fictitious, that ex- 
perience alone steps forward in all such 
cases and records its decision. We are not 
to judge altogether, however, of the charac- 
teristic peculiarities of an action ; for some 
of the more eccentric in the sacred writings, 
have not only been sanctioned by the divine 
Being after their performance, but have ori- 
ginated in his appointment. Such a man as 
Crister would have fulfilled to the letter 



38 wall's end miner. 

every prophetic action and evolution ; he 
would have " smitten the ground" with 
Joash, and would have aided the monarch, 
like Elisha, in directing the flight of " the ar- 
row;"— with Jeremiah, he would have placed 
the " linen girdle on his loins" — hid it in " the 
hole of a rock by the Euphrates" — improved 
upon the mechanism of the "potter" and his 
" clay" — " broken the bottle before the an- 
cients of the people" — put " bonds and yokes" 
upon his " neck"- — and would have " broken 
the yoke" like Hananiah, after it had been 
taken from off the prophet ; — or with Agabus, 
would have stripped Paul of his " girdle" 
and " bound himself with it" — " hands and 
feet," as a sign of what the apostle had to 
expect at Jerusalem. Eccentric and sudden 
as were many of Crister's movements, they 
were all natural ; they never offended ; they 
fitted him with the exactness of his clothes ; and 
like his coat, if seen on the person of another, 
would have been recognised by the public. 
They were rarely premeditated, and were 
generally the offspring of genuine ^ feeling ; 
and though repeated occasionally, with inter- 
vals between, the repetition was only when 
the same feeling was in full operation. 

The language of humble and familiar life 
was often used with peculiar effect by him, 
while thus encircled by his fellow Christians, 
and may be considered as confirmatory of 
the remark of Landor just employed. He 
remarked, on the subject of temptation, " I 



wall's end miner. 39 

always get quit of the devil by taking him 
before his betters." Then, turning to his 
class-mates, he added, ;i Keep none of the 
devil's secrets, otherwise he will be sure to 
keep you. When the arch enemy slips un- 
noticed behind your back, and you find hirn 
whispering over your shoulder, take his sug- 
gestions directly to the Lord. Do this, and 
you will soon rind, on looking around, that he 
is off to somebody else. He will not stop 
there to be exposed. This is the way I 
do ; and many a tut (conflict) I have with 
him down the pit. But when he comes, I 
get me down behind the brattisk — begin to 
pray — and away he goes." If in this case 
the enemy were not slain, as Benaiah " slew 
two lion-like men, and also a lion in the midst 
of a pit in time of snow," he was at least 
foiled in the fight : and often was the pit con- 
verted into a place of worship by him, a hun- 
dred and forty fathoms beneath the termina- 
tion of the old Roman wall, where Severus 
had displayed his idolatrous rites, and near 
which Roman altars had been erected. 

At a time when the work of God was rather 
low at Carville, and in the neighbourhood, he 
not only lived in hope of seeing greater 
prosperity himself, but was the instrument 
of encouraging the faith and prospects of 
others. " The work is the Lord's," said he ; 
" he waits to be gracious. We have been 
blessed in times past ; and he has revived his 
work in other places. What cannot the Lord 



40 * wall's end miner. 

do ? Think of the revival there was the other 
day, when no less than three thousand per- 
sons were brought in at one time ! Let us pray 
on — believe on — and we shall be catching the 
skirt of a shower." One of the members, de- 
lighted to hear the tidings of a revival, asked 
him, on leaving the class, " What is the name 
of the place at which the work has broken 
out, of which you were speaking?" " Why, 
do you not know?" returned he; surprised 
that the number did not lead to the associa- 
tion of place. With equal simplicity, the 
person replied, " This is the first time I have 
heard of it." Crister quickly inquired, " Did 
you never hear of the day of pentecost ?" 
The person being somewhat disappointed, 
and desirous of apologizing for the dulness 
manifested, returned, " You said ' the other 
day,' " Crister, who had been dwelling on 
the subject, and had associated a modern 
revival with it, attended with its prayer meet- 
ings, and its penitents crying out for mercy, 
and who seemed to be in the midst of it, in 
his imaginings, replied — -"It is no more; 
time is nothing when compared with eter- 
nity ; it is but just like the other day" And 
as a rebuke for the apparent want of interest 
in things comparatively remote, as well as for 
apparently cherished unbelief, he subjoined, 
" We should always bring those things near ; 
they should be present with us to encourage 
us. What God did on the day of pentecost, 
he can do now. There mav be a revival at 



wall's end miner. 41 

Carville as well as at Jerusalem. God is the 
same — the work is the same — and there is 
the same need and encouragement now as 
then." 

When his leader found it necessary to 
speak closely to the members on particular 
subjects, Crister would have sat like a person 
watching another in progress with a work of 
importance ; and as the lights in which he 
viewed different subjects varied often from 
those indulged by others, he would have 
struck in with an occasional sentence, like a 
response, saying, " That is all right ;" in- 
stantly subjoining, with his eye directed 
toward the person addressed, " but mind 
you, Tom," or i; mind you, Bill, there is 
another thing, which he has forgotten." 
Then, like a last stroke, to rivet all that had 
preceded, he would dash into the conscience 
or the understanding some fine, bold, close, 
searching remark, or would employ some 
appropriately striking illustration, which had 
been awakened in the mind by the observa- 
tions of the leader, and which might have 
slumbered there but for such observations. 
Indecorous and annoying as this would be, if 
generally adopted, it* was not only tolerated 
here, but next to courted for the value of 
what was educed. 

In his more felicitous moments, he would 
slip in a hasty remark, as a person proceeded 
with his experience, and before it was deem- 
ed proper for the leader to offer advice. " I 



42 wall's end miner. 

have been living next door to glory for some 
time past," said a person, interrogated on his 
state of mind. Crister started on his feet on 
the fall of the sentence, as though bounding 
at the instance of an invisible power, exclaim- 
ing with the ardour of a seraph, " Never 
leave it, then, till you shift ;" telling him, in 
effect, to remain there till death : for if he 
were so near, as to be living next door to it, 
he was not only as close to it as he could well 
be in this world, but the remove would be 
exceedingly short, when summoned hence. 
On his own state he would say, " I wish to 
go full sail to glory." 

Under a fine glow of feeling, the people 
were sometimes relieved also by a brief sent- 
ence sent across the room by him, from the 
corner where he sat: " How do you feel 
there, friends ? O, there is a heavenly breeze 
here ! It is just wafting past, and refreshing 
the soul." To persons, strangers to experi- 
mental religion, such language — had they 
been introduced into the room on the occa- 
sion — would have been deemed enthusiastic. 
But Crister was in accordance with Scripture 
in his phraseology : " The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, 
and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is 
born of the Spirit." Even a " teacher in 
Israel," like Nicodemus, asking, " How can 
these things be ?" could not alter the subject ; 



wall's end miner. 43 

nor would he, on such an inquiry, command 
our respect. 

In prayer, as in speaking, it was the same. 
A person who was praying that the Lord 
would " bless the ministry of the word, and 
make it like a nail fastened in a sure place," 
was instantly responded to — " Aye, Lord, and 
click (clench) it on the other side ;" Crister's 
additional ardour making it doubly sure, by 
preventing it from starting. 



CHAPTER III. 

Visits the chamber of the sick — Faith — His peculiar mode 
of pleading the promises — Brings a mariner to class — Indi- 
viduality in prayer — His manner of beginning the Sabbath — 
Love of the Scriptures — Partiality to prayer-meetings — 
Power in acting and painting — Startling effects of his con- 
duct to juvenile transgressors in the pit — A sudden hell — 
Delights to set the minds of others imperceptibly afloat on 
different subjects — Listens to the voice of prayer — Is a nurs- 
ing father to young converts — His anxiety for the salvation 
of sinners — A revival. 

Being distinguished for his piety and power 
in prayer, he was occasionally sent for to visit 
other abodes than the cottages of the poor. A 
gentleman, exquisitely sensitive, with an in- 
tellect of the first order, and of considerable 
literary attainments — who, in fact, seemed to 
be all over spirit, sent for Crister to pray with 
him in the midst of his despondencies. On 
his being- introduced into the room where the 
invalid lay stretched upon his couch, persuad- 



44 WALI/S END MINER. 

ing himself that he had become a " cast-a- 
way," he took his seat, apparently surprised 
with the splendour and richness of the furni- 
ture and the drapery, occasionally shooting 
one of his quiet, yet quick glances, at the 
pictures and more ornamental parts of the 
gilding and workmanship. A degree of 
restlessness pervaded his visual organs, till 
the excellent man who required his aid rivet- 
ed his attention by his sighs and forebodings, 
stating that he had no faith, wanted the wit- 
ness of the Spirit, was solicitous only of the 
favour of God, but had no hope of ever being 
saved. Crister sat greedily devouring every 
word, with his eyes of fire fixed upon him ; 
and yet in their fiery brilliancy there was a 
sweet glow of tenderness, while his remarks, 
in the broad Northumberland dialect, were 
equally kind, though blunt, quick, and per- 
tinent as replies. Having heard the case, he 
knelt down, and in a kind of half prayer and 
half exhortation, made his appeals both to the 
patient and to the throne of grace, telling the 
Lord, " that he believed, that all that was the 
matter with the subject of prayer was, he 
would not give him credit for speaking the 
truth." Taking hold of this, he immediately 
bore away in a strain of impassioned feeling, 
thanking God for a divine revelation, express- 
ing his own confidence in its truth, rejoicing 
in the consolations he derived from it, — his 
thoughts almost constantly revolving round 
the promises of the gospel, and the veracity 



wall's end miner. 45 

of the giver. After praying some time with 
fluency and fervency, he abruptly concluded, 
and while yet upon his knees, and strong in 
faith, he inquired — expecting nothing short 
of brightening prospects — kt How do you 
feel ?" repeating with the same breath, " Lay 
hold of God ; rely on his truth — for he has no 
pleasure in the death of a sinner." Alas ! 
shut up in unbelief, he was only responded to 
by the sighs of the prisoner, who could be- 
lieve for any one except himself. Still kneel- 
ing by the bedside, and rinding the gloom 
impenetrated by a single ray of hope, he 
again broke away in prayer, and turning 
upon the love, as he had dwelt upon the truth 
of God, his whole soul seemed warmed, melt- 
ed, filled, and overpowered with its influence ; 
occasioning a "joy unspeakable, and full of 
glory ;" which joy, by the way, was not an 
impromptu, experienced only on stirring or 
public occasions, but an habitual feeling. On 
a second abrupt termination of his devout 
aspirations to God, and still in a kneeling po- 
sition, — conveying the impression of a strong 
strait-forward current, either taking another 
direction or suddenly arrested in its progress 
by an embankment, with its spray dashing 
over the top — he dropped his upward-turned 
countenance, and bent it toward the object 
of his compassion, beaming with tender and 
joyous expression, accompanied with an in- 
quisitive earnestness, again inquiring — " How 
do you feel now ?— Is faith in exercise?" 



46 wall's end miner. 

Despair, also, was still in its strong-hold ; 
the heart was bolted and barred against all 
approach with the " precious promises ;" and 
every avenue leading to its door was vigi- 
lantly guarded by the sophisms of learning 
and unbelief, with a mind naturally predis- 
posed to turn to the dark side of the " pillar," 
which was to him as to the Egyptians " a 
cloud and darkness ;" God, as he supposed, 
with regard to himself, having "made dark- 
ness his secret place ; his pavilion round 
about him dark waters, and thick clouds of 
the skies." The impression of reprobation 
M r as deej), and alone indulged. Without 
having once risen to relieve himself, Cris- 
ter — as if touched with another live coal from 
off the altar, bore away once more in prayer. 
He caught the term "reprobate," and told 
the Lord in his simplicity, that if acceptance 
were grounded on character, he was sure he 
had been a greater " rip" than the person 
for whom he was interceding, and that if he 
had been disposed to "pass by" any one, it 
would have been himself; dwelling largely 
at the same time on a want of merit in the 
creature — the atoning sacrifice of Christ — 
and the fact of God being no " respecter of 
persons" High as he was before, he was 
still more fervent and more elevated in this 
last appeal. Dropping as suddenly again as 
at first, and having felt as though it were im- 
possible for any one to remain unmoved in 
the midst of so much of the power and pre- 



wall's end mixer. 47 

sence of God, he proceeded with his usual in- 
terrogatories, to which he received the usual 
replies. Starting from his knees, big with 
disappointment, and as if impatient with the 
perseverance and obstinacy of unbelief, he 

said, " I tell you what, Mr. , it appears 

to me as though nothing would satisfy you 
short of God almighty coming down to bed 
to you, to speak to you with an audible 
voice : and that he will never do. You may 
look for this to the day of your death, and 
drop into hell at last. You will be sure to be 
disappointed. And why not? God has given 
you his word, and he will give you no new 
revelation. Make use of what you have. He 
tells you there that he has no pleasure in the 
death of a sinner — that Christ tasted death 
for every man — and that he that believeth 
shall be saved. If you will not give him 
credit for speaking the truth, take the conse- 
quence, for l he that believeth not shall be 
damned.' " So saying, he closed, like a me- 
dical attendant, with " I can do no more for 
you," and departed. The former part of 
the address shocked the delicate mind of the 
desponding suppliant, from the familiarity of 
the expression employed, and startled him 
like the distant sound of blasphemy ; and 
yet, to the soundness of the theology 
he could offer no objection. His unbelief 
was posed at every point ; gladly would he 
have abandoned it : but he was left as he was 
found ; a case that goes to support the truth 



48 WALL'S END MINER. 

of. the position, — that we may believe if we 
will, though not when we will. This secures 
the glory of God, whose gift faith is, and 
who blesses every man with a day of visita- 
tion : and at the same time affords no en- 
couragement to the persevering sinner, who, 
having turned a deaf ear to the voice of 
mercy, may be led to indulge a hope that 
heaven will be at his beck, when the world 
recedes from his view, and its pleasures can 
be no longer retained. As to the person in 
question, Crister had to cope in him with a 
constitutional melancholy ; an affliction of 
which he had as slender an experimental 
knowledge as most men, and was as little 
acquainted with its remedy. 

This same person called upon him after- 
ward, and conversed with him a considerable 
length of time. Faith being the chief topic 
of conversation, he observed to Crister, 
" There is but one faith, of saving efficacy ; 
but there are different degrees of it : there 
is faith — little faith — and mighty faith.'''' 
" Aye," returned the animated collier, " the 
last is it ; keep at that ; I always like to be 
at the top." Speaking of the conversation, 
afterward, which also became the subject of 
prayer, he said, — " Why, that man is sure 
to get saved ; he can talk about nothing else 
but about Christ and faith. Do you think 
that God will send such a man as that to the 
devil? i\ T o, no." Then, with a fine burst 
of feeling, and a& though God were as ready 



wall's end miner. 49 

to admit, as faith and charity are ready to 
perform, works of supererogation, he sub- 
joined, " Bless him, if he cannot believe, I'll 
believe for him ;" thus denoting his confi- 
dence in the present and final salvation of the 
subject. 

There was, as will have been perceived, 
a peculiarity both in the manner and in the 
matter of his addresses at a throne of grace, 
which can only be resolved into natural cha- 
racter, a lively imagination, quick perception, 
and a want of cultivation. While he was 
praying in the class once, with great fervour 
of spirit, and rapidity of expression, he took 
a copy of Clarke's " Scripture Promises" 
from his pocket, which he generally carried 
about with him; and without the least inter- 
ruption in his devotion, or breaking down in 
a sentence, he turned, with the rapidity of 
thought itself, to several encouraging and ap- 
propriate passages — read them with the same 
quickness and in the same voice as that 
with which he had been pouring out the 
extemporaneous effusions of his soul — made 
them the ground work of increasing faith, 
hope, love, and joy, and of still greater ear- 
nestness after full salvation — pointing to.them 
— saying, " Here they are, Lord ; they are 
thine own ; we claim them through a cruci- 
fied Redeemer ;" — then, turning to his class- 
mates, to encourage them in their expecta- 
tions, he added, " Yes, they are here, — one 
here — and another there — all sparkling from 
4 



50 wall's end miner. 

the mint, like new coined guineas ! pick them 
up — take them off — and pay your way with 
them ,-" bursting forth in a torrent of grati- 
tude, and bearing every spirit with his own 
to " the third heavens," where " things un- 
utterable" — if not seen, were felt in all their 
fulness. On other occasions, he would have 
taken up the promises, expressed by him, 
u the * I will' promises" — strung them to- 
gether in his prayer— enforced them with 
peculiar energy on the minds of associate 
suppliants — and pleaded them with a power 
of faith at the throne of grace which was 
rarely denied. He would have run on, — 
" / will forgive their iniquity, and J will re- 
member their sin no more — I will be merci- 
ful to their unrighteousness — I will, be thou 
clean — / will walk among you — /, the Lord, 
will be their God — 1 20 ill be to them a God," 
&c, &c. ; and, then, in the strength of faith 
in God, and in the warmth of love to man, 
he would exclaim, " Here is an / will for 
every state, and for every person ; and what 
God wills, he is disposed to do,— and what 
he is disposed to do, he can do." In pray- 
ing with penitents, he was peculiarly felici- 
tous for power and expression. There was a 
kind of irresistible omnipotence in his prayer 
for persons in that state ; and there have 
been instances of prayer meetings being held 
for a great length of time, and on the point 
of closing in disappointment, when he has 
struck in, and the persons for whom prayer 



wall's end mixer. 51 

had been made, have entered into the liberty 
of the children of God. 

A mariner, who had entered the Tyne in 
the course of his calling, was met by Cris- 
ter a few weeks before his death, and taken 
to class by him, affording a little scope both 
for his fancy and piety. Scarcely any thing 
escaped his eye — and few were the circum- 
stances that were permitted to pass unim- 
proved. He was delighted to see the ho- 
nest tar, who was exposed to as many deaths 
as himself; and being requested to pray, the 
stranger was not neglected. Anxious for 
his safety, and his own fancy and best feel- 
ings being in lively exercise, he prayed, that 
his soul might be like a clean ship — that all 
might be found right when the pilot came on 
board — that, if freighted at all, he might be 
richly laden with divine grace — and that, at 
death, when about to enter the fair haven, the 
custom-house officers might find no contra- 
band goods in his possession, exposing him 
to seizure and to the prison of hell. Having 
run on for some time, employing — to the de- 
light of the man himself, and the surprise of 
all present — a number of nautical phrases, 
representing this life as a voyage, with its 
storms and its calms, its depths and its shal- 
lows, its rocks and its quicksands, and " an 
abundant entrance" at the close, he rose 
from his knees, and with equal presence of 
mind, gave out, from recollection, — 



52 wall's end miner. 

" Come, heavenly wind, and blow 
A prosperous gale of grace, 
And waft my sou] aw T ay 

To heaven, — its destined place , 
Then, in full sail, my port I'll find, 
And leave the world and sin behind." 

The mariner visited the class about three 
weeks after Crister's death, and was much 
affected by the occasion. 

This was not an extraordinary, but a com- 
mon case. Names, persons, and things had 
all their associations, and kept not only the 
imagination, but the emotions of the soul in 
constant employment ; and every workman 
in -the vineyard for the day, had an interest 
in his intercessory prayers. If Mr. Mann 
had been appointed to preach, he would pray, 
that he might come up in the strength, and 
appear before the people in the genuine cha- 
racter, of " a man of God." Should it have 
been the junior preacher, — then, that he 
might be imbued with the spirit of a youth- 
ful Timothy, or, that Jesus would come up 
with the " lad" with his " five barley loaves 
and two small fishes." Or, if a person ap- 
peared on the plan whose christened name 
was David,— in such case, that he might be 
directed to pick up a stone, in crossing the 
brook, on his way to the place, and enabled 
by his sling — simple in itself, but mighty, 
through God, to bring down the Goliah of 
sin ! And in case of the local brethren being 
appointed, — that the God of Joshua would 
stand by the priests bearing the "rams 



wall's end miner. 53 

horns" — breathe through them by his Spi- 
rit — and lay prostrate by their blast the walls 
of Jericho, — every strong hold of Satan ! 

On the morning of the Sabbath, a prayer 
meeting was regularly held in the chapel, 
which commenced at seven o'clock. It was 
often but thinly attended ; but Crister and his 
leader always made two of the number. As 
a chapter of the Bible was generally read, 
the former usually directed his way to the 
chapel before the opening of the service, for 
the purpose of prayer, and in order to select 
what he deemed a suitable chapter for the 
day, — something peculiarly striking and im- 
pressive ; and there he might have been seen 
through the window, sitting alone, if not with 
" patriarchal grace," like the poet's " cot- 
ter," at least with cheerfulness and earnest- 
ness, — with all those pleasurable emotions 
experienced by persons resolved on furnish- 
ing their friends with a rich repast; and of 
whom it might be said, 

" He wales a portion wi' judicious care." 

His mind, like the bird of the sun, thus ho- 
vering over the sacred ground of the Bible, 
would have instantly descended, and seizing 
on a chapter which forcibly arrested atten- 
tion, he would have handed the Bible or the 
Testament to his leader on his arrival ; and, 
pointing to it, as proper food, for the old as 
well as the young, would again have feasted 
upon it, as manna from heaven. In the course 



54 wall's end miner. 

of reading, he would sometimes give utter- 
ance to a thought comprised in two or three 
brief sentences, which, while it came with the 
suddenness and power of an electrical shock 
upon the feelings of both the reader and the 
hearer, would have fallen like a flash of light 
upon the passage. On other occasions, he 
would reserve a reflection or two to the close : 
and when unmoved in either case, he was cer- 
tain to make it the subject matter of some part 
of his prayer, — thus raising the mind to God 
through the medium of his own word. 

The high tone of Christian feeling, which 
was always perceptible to others, may 
be accounted for in the manner in which he 
began the Sabbath. It was not merely a 
quarter of an hour before service that was 
devoted to private purposes ; but almost 
regularly, he was found in the temple two 
hours before the prayer-meeting commenced, 
winter and summer, in the storm and in the 
calm, whether wet or dry. The house of 
God was his closet for retirement on the 
morning of the Lord's day ; and baptiz- 
ed there with the Holy Ghost, he came 
forth like a giant refreshed with new wine. 
In winter he lit the stove, and sat beside it 
with his Bible, or knelt within the shade of a 
pew. Though the fire continued burning 
in the Jewish temple, the lamps were pro- 
bably extinguished just before sun rise, and 
here, like old Eli and Samuel, who seemed to 
have apartments near the ark, Crister,— 



wall's end mixer. 55 

" ere the lamp of God went out of the temple 
of the Lord,"— was found, not " laid down," 
but in active devotion, waiting to hear the 
voice of his Maker. 

Being a man of prayer, he was extremely- 
partial to prayer-meetings ; and was constant 
in his attendance at different places. One in 
particular may be noticed, which he, in con- 
nection with some other friends, attended, at 
Byker Hill, ten or twelve years before his 
death. Here, when the number of persons 
accustomed to conduct the meeting was in- 
complete, and also when he felt desirous of 
impressing the people with religious truth, 
he would give a short address, a good deal in 
the dehortatory and exhortatory mood. On 
perceiving a goodly company one evening, 
composed of mixed characters, and persons 
of different ages, he addressed the young, 
the old, and the middle-aged, giving a por- 
tion to each, agreeably to the lives they had 
led, and the length of their stay in a proba- 
tionary state. Just at the moment he had 
strung the people up to a certain point of 
highly excited feeling — himself being under 
an extraordinary influence — he suddenly step- 
ped forward with one foot, inclining his body 
in the same direction, like a person about to 
throw himself headlong over a frightful pre- 
cipice, and exclaimed, " O, bless you, I love 
you so much, that I could dash away down- 
ward, and take a dip into hell for you, if it 
would only be the means of saving you :" and 



56 wall's end miner. 

then, having set every imagination to work, 
by his attitude and expressions, together with 
the affectionate burst of philanthropy — every 
eye at the instant inadvertently turned to the 
earth, as though it had suddenly opened its 
mouth, and he was seen whizzing his down- 
ward course, he quickly started back, — as 
if he had just touched the liquid mass, and 
felt it too much for him to bear for the mo- 
ment, and therefore too much for them to 
endure for ever, exclaiming, in an altered 
tone, — " but, mind ye, I should not like to 
stop there." The sensation produced was 
beyond description, and can only be com- 
prehended in its effects by adverting to 
other cases of impressive and stirring elo- 
quence. Nor is there any thing either in 
the sentiment or the feeling from which it 
emanated, that is not implied in that extraor- 
dinary saying of Moses, — " And if not, blot 
me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou 
hast written ;" or the no less remarkable, and 
philanthropic saying of St. Paul, " I could 
wish that myself were accursed from Christ 
for my brethren, my kinsmen according to 
the flesh." 

Such an instance, too, may lead us more 
fully to appreciate the real character of White- 
field's preaching, whose power of painting, in 
which, it is stated, consisted the chief magic 
of his eloquence, enabled him to carry men 
where he chose, with a touch more powerful 
than magic. He is said to have annihilated 



WALI/6 END MINER. 57 

every thing but the scene he would present, 
and drawing aside the veil of eternity, would 
now lead his hearers to the opening gate of 
heaven, and now to the yawning pit of hell. 
In support of this — though wandering a little 
from home, we have only to witness its 
effects on Chesterfield. The skeptic was 
present when Whitefield presented the votary 
of sin under the figure of a blind beggar led 
by a little dog. The dog had broken his 
string. The blind cripple, with his staff 
between both hands, groped his way uncon- 
scious to a precipice. As he felt along w T ith his 
staff, it dropped down the descent too deep to 
send back an echo. He thought it on the 
ground, and bending forward took one care- 
ful step to recover it. But he trod on va- 
cancy, poised for a moment, and as he fell 
headlong, Chesterfield sprung from his seat 
exclaiming, " He is gone !" With our col- 
lier, the effects — though on a less magnificent 
scale — were not less extraordinary ; accom- 
panied, however, with occasional acting as 
well as painting. 

Some works of darkness were in progress 
down the pit one day, among the boys and 
others, in an apartment where there was no 
light at the time, and therefore suited to the 
occasion. Crister heard their blasphemies at 
a distance, and silently wound his way through 
the workings to the spot, when he sprang in 
upon them with a light in his hand, revealing 
every lace, hurriedly exclaiming — as his eyes 



58 wall's end miner. 

glared upon them, " Lads, what are you 
about?" adding, with the same breath, " Do 
you not know, that God Almighty can take 
the which (the life) out of you in a moment, 
just like this candle" — closing his finger and 
thumb upon the flame, and extinguishing it ; 
leaving them in an instant in the darkness in 
which he had found them — an emblem of 
that " outer darkness" to which their deeds 
were hastening them, and a prey to a pit 
more terrible than the one in which they 
sported. "The light broke in upon them like 
an unexpected flash of lightning at midnight — • 
their deeds were made manifest — the rebuke 
fell like a voice from the invisible world upon 
the ear — and conscience was left to perform its 
office upon the scared and detected culprits ; 
— Crister praying for each, that God would 
" deliver his soul," in the language of Elihu, 
" from going down to the" nether " pit," that 
" his life might see the light." 

" You rebels," said he, on another occa- 
sion, when some of them were blaspheming 
the name of God before they left their work, 
" are you not aware that if God Almighty 
were to blast the pit, you would drop into 
hell in a moment?" Sudden happiness and 
sudden misery were subjects often dwelling 
on his mind, and uttered by his lips : and on 
the latter, the reply of a Cornish miner to 
the question of a profane wretch who was 
sporting with eternity in the midst of dan- 
ger, is exceedingly pertinent, and accords 



wall's end miner. 59 

with the notion which the miner of the 
Tyne carried about with him, and laboured 
to impress upon the human mind. The 
person in question, while in the act of as- 
cending, being impatient to reach the day, 
made a remark on the depth of the mine, and 
suddenly transferred his thoughts from one 
pit to another — mingling his interrogatories 
with oaths, and asking, " How far is it to 
hell ?" " I cannot tell," returned the person 
who was suspended in the noose with him, 
" but if the rope were to break you would be 
there directly." 

Though his actions were generally spon- 
taneous, there was a disposition evidently 
indulged to take persons now and then by 
surprise. In one of his musing moods, he 
approached a hewer in the pit one day, and 
was close behind him dropping these words 
into his ear — " Will this be the last day 
thinkest thee V before he was aware. Turn- 
ing his view up, and finding it was Crister, 
he suspended his work, and asked, " Is 
there no trade?" Crister, deceiving him 
on another track from the one intended, 
said, " Yes, there is a trade ; but we may 
not be permitted to see another day." Then, 
in an equally enigmatical mood, he inquired, 
" Dost thou think we shall be able to get 
over?" " Over where?" asked the hewer. 
"Over Jordan," rejoined Crister: adding, 
with some emotion, " I think we shall, if 
we only have faith in the king of the city." 



60 wall's end miner. 

He had been dwelling on the case of the 
Israelites crossing Jordan, and connecting 
it with his own exit, he was led in the 
midst of his re very to rouse the attention 
of a fellow-hewer to divine things. It was 
in this way he would sometimes accost 
others ; commencing with a brief sentence, 
whose sense was at first as beclouded as 
Samson's " riddle," gradually enlarging his 
boundary to let in more light, till he brought 
his hearer home to his meaning. 

It was to the relief and salvation of the 
human soul that he was constantly direct- 
ing his energies ; and as it was the joy of 
his heart to find piety in others, so he not 
only sought to augment it himself, but ex- 
horted the persons to communicate and shine 
for the benefit of those around. Having oc- 
casion to visit the banks of the Wear, he 
passed a house where he thought he heard the 
voice of prayer. He paused, and found his 
ear correct. It was as the voice of melody ; 
and he not only stood in reverence to join 
in the worship, but laid his ear to the door, 
that he might yield the response to the peti- 
tions. He had softly touched the latch, but 
found all fast. When family worship ceased, 
the good man of the house unlocked the 
door, and to his surprise found a stranger on 
the point of entering. The streams of Chris- 
tian affection, which flowed from each of 
their hearts, were much nearer than the 
Wear and the Tyne, on whose separate banks 



wall's end miner. 61 

they dwelt; and after a passing band meet- 
ing, Crister told him never to lock his door 
again during the worship of God — to leave it 
in a state of readiness for any one to push it 
gently back, who might he disposed to encir- 
cle the family altar with him — and to be fear- 
less in his Christian profession before men. 

He had the tribute of respect paid to him 
by young converts, which children pay to 
those who love them ; and as a higher com- 
pliment can scarcely be conceived, as due 
to age, so a more lovely picture can scarcely 
be presented to the eye than that of a num- 
ber of children grouping round and clinging 
to an old man. The innocence of childhood 
will attach itself to the innocence of age ; 
and few are better judges than children of 
the meek, the gentle, and the amiable. Young 
converts, and especially the young in years, 
seemed instinctively to turn to Crister ; and 
in his house they were sure to find an asylum. 
He sang and prayed with them, and nursed 
them with the tenderness of a parent ; tra- 
vailing in spirit for them, till Christ was 
formed in them " the hope of glory." Many 
examples of this kind occurred; one, how- 
ever, as the subject was closely connected 
with him in death, may be adduced. 

When Thomas Ellerton — afterward desig- 
nated "Little Tom," and the "Little Old 
Man," first became serious, he, like others, 
fled to this "nursing father." He was only 
about twelve years of age ; but he suffered 



62 wall's end miner. 

much when under conviction of sin. Bigge's 
Main was one of Crister's favourite places, 
and was called by him " the hot bed of Me- 
thodism." A prayer-meeting was established 
there, and the poor little fellow in whose 
welfare he felt so deep an interest wished to 
attend it. He seemed to have more faith in 
Crister and in the place, than in the Saviour 
of sinners ; and asked the former to accom- 
pany him. Crister had some engagements 
which pressed upon him ; but anxious for the 
boy's happiness, he told him to go on, and he 
would follow. As the boy paced by the side 
of W. Mason, he asked, with great simplici- 
ty, " Do you think God can pardon me to- 
night?" He received for reply, " Yes ;" and 
was encouraged to put faith into exercise. 
A wishful look was cast back every now and 
then to see whether Crister was on the road, 
in whose faithful prayers he reposed great 
confidence. Crister, on the other hand, de- 
sirous of giving him all the aid he had in his 
power, as well as to encourage him by his 
presence, posted off the moment he was re- 
leased from his engagement. Just as Crister 
arrived at the door, the little fellow stepped 
into Christian liberty, and " glory" was the 
first word that saluted the ear from his lips. 
Speaking of the case afterward, Crister said, 
" I went up to give him a bit of a lift with 
all the faith I had, in order to help him 
through the strait gate. He needed all the 
help he could get, poor thing. But when I 



wall's end miner. 63 

got there, the work was done — ready made to 
my hand, and I had nothing to do but to re- 
joice." This kind-hearted man could have 
prayed for the boy in his own house, as well 
as at Bigge's Main. But to accommodate his 
feelings, he laid himself under considerable 
inconvenience, and after the hard labour of the 
day, hurried a distance from home ; thus 
complying with the apostolic injunction — 
" Let them pray over him ;" and with a heart 
teeming with the prayer of one of old, " Deli- 
ver him from going down to the pit," — add- 
ing, as a plea, — " I have found a ransom." 

There were tew cases, indeed, in the neigh- 
bourhood, of persons in a penitential state, 
for whom he did not agonize in prayer, and to 
whom he did not minister. A collier, who 
was convinced of sin under a sermon preach- 
ed by Mr. W. Dawson, hastened from the pit 
to a prayer-meeting, without going home to 
wash himself and change his attire. He 
knelt, like a piece of animated jet, by the side 
of Crister and others — the white of the eye, 
and a tear channel down either cheek, pre- 
senting the only points of native hue. " We 
had a sad tue (work) with him," said Crister ; 
" we laboured with him about an hour ; but 
he got the blessing at last ; — and there was 
no need for him to tell us, for we saw it 
beaming through his black face," 

He was not only a " nursing father" to the 
"babe in Christ," and manifested a general 
concern for the salvation of sinners, but he 



64 wall's end miner. 

directed his attention to particular persons, 
and made one appeal after another, till they 
bowed before his importunities and his pray- 
ers. Mr. R. having received a female into 
his service, who was a stranger to vital reli- 
gion, obliged her to conform to the Christian 
usages of the family. She made her boast 
that she would never become a Methodist. 
Crister soon found her out, and having been 
subjected to a few of his appeals, she at 
length fled from the kitchen to an out-house, 
on his approach. But before three weeks had 
elapsed, she yielded to the force. of conviction, 
like the tree to the storm, and entered the 
class which met in the house, in order to se- 
cure that repose of which she had so long 
lived in a state of destitution. 

While thus pursuing sinners by his exhort- 
ations and prayers, he once remarked with great 
tenderness, — "Aye, if they only knew, poor 
things, the happiness we enjoy, they would 
be good too ;" adding, with great ardour, 
" Why, I would lend them mine ;" and then 
subjoining with his usual acuteness, — " But 
then, I should never get it back again : ,? thus 
showing his distrust of human nature, and the 
high value he fixed upon his religious enjoy- 
ments — considering it enough only to taste 
the happiness of heaven, in order to induce a 
person to maintain his hold of the cup of bless- 
ing, and sedulously to seek after an increase 
of the grace of God. 

In the midst of a revival of the work of 



wall's end miner. 65 

God, he was rarely otherwise than in his glory 
— moving about with the briskness and plea- 
surable feeling of a person prospering in 
business. On seeing a number of persons, 
boich old and young, brought under a serious 
concern for the salvation of their souls at 
Carville, he wept, he prayed, he rejoiced, and 
felt something of the struggling spirit of an 
apostle, when he said, "My little children, 
of whom I travail in birth, until Christ be 
formed in you." The whole valley, which 
had been filled for some time with little else 
but " dry bones," began at length to heave 
with life. This vision was apparently present 
with Crister one night, while engaged in a 
prayer-meeting ; and labouring to give ex- 
pression to the conceptions of his mind on 
the subject, he became bankrupt in words : 
to preserve the feelimg, however, he rebound- 
ed, and caught hold of the circumstances of 
the times, — praising God for the glorious 
work he was carrying on, saying, " It was like 
calling in the old coins, and sending out 
new ;" — the coinage of the realm undergoing 
an actual change at the period, and occasion- 
ing general gladness, as is usual, among all 
ranks in society — every one trying to obtain 
a sight, and to keep possession of a piece of 
the first issue. 

5 



66 wall's end miner. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Love-feast addresses — Enlargement of soul — Caution in 
reference to love-leasts — Preparation for heaven, under the 
similitude of waiting for a stage coach — His use of Scrip- 
ture narrative — Occasional conduct in love-feasts and fellow- 
ship meetings — The recognition of saints in heaven — Is a 
publisher of glad tidings — A characteristic stroke on preach- 
ing — His love of Christian ministers — Imposes silence on 
false reasoning — Wild fire — The superiority of deeds to 
words — Encouragement to expectants — Life a journey — 
Sudden illumination — The ready reception of a blessing — 
Comprehensive views — Perseverance and malignity of Sa- 
tan — The destruction of sin necessary to religious prospe- 
rity — Power over the devil. 

Some of his love-feast addresses are inter- 
spersed throughout the other pages of the 
work ; but a few of them demand greater 
prominency. It was not long after his conver- 
sion to God before he became distinguished 
on those festal occasions, and among some 
of his earlier essays, when attending one at 
North Shields about 1815, at which Mr. R. 
Wilson, of Newcastle, was present, he ob- 
served, "I was up this morning at 4 o'clock, 
praying to Gocl for a good love-feast to-day ; 
and aye, friends, he filled me so full of love, 
that I could scarcely contain myself. A 
thought struck me — Why, when religion 
prospers among a people, they immediately 
set to work to raise a chapel ; and, on find- 
ing the good cause on the increase, the next 
thing they do is, to erect a gallery for the 
accommodation of the hearers. O, I thought, 



wall's end miner. 67 

while God was blessing me this morning, 
what a still greater blessing it would be, if 
he were not only to enlarge my heart, but 
build a gallery in it, for the accommodation 
of himself — for still greater degrees of divine 
love." Religious characters may not un fre- 
quently have been thrown in the way of that 
phrase—" Lord, withhold thy hand, or en- 
large the vessel!" but this is perhaps the 
tirst instance of a " gallery" being presented 
to their observation. And yet, at first sight, 
a mere conceit as it may seem, it is in per- 
fect keeping with the language of inspiration, 
where the apostle asks — " Know ye not that 
ye are the temple of God, and that the spi- 
rit of God dweileth in you?" stating else- 
where, — " Ye are the temple of the living 
God : as God hath said, I will dwell in them, 
and walk in them ; and I will be their God, 
and they shall be my people." It was not 
a " vessel" — such as might be taken in the 
hand, that could at all comport with the en- 
larged conceptions of this child of the mine, 
whose thoughts, while his hands were en- 
gaged with the coal, were as frequently and 
closely employed in mining among the gold 
and the diamonds of every thing excellent in 
nature and religion ; — no, he reposed on 
something more capacious : — he proceeded 
to the magnificent temple — not only galleried 
at the end, but from side to side — pew added 
to pew, and seat rising beyond seat — tower- 
ing, ample, and full — affording at once a fit 



68 wall's end miner. 

emblem of the capabilities of the human soul, 
in its endless progress in knowledge, holi- 
ness, and happiness, and of the infinite good- 
ness of God, from whose " fulness" the 
Christian receives " grace for grace," or, in 
other words, grace after grace — blessing 
added to blessing — one blessing upon another. 
On one occasion he was so completely over- 
powered with the joys of religion, that he ex- 
claimed, " Withhold thy hand, Lord, or the 
vessel will burst." " You should have prayed 
for an enlargement of the vessel" said the 
late Mr. Bramwell, who was standing by at 
the time. 

It is not surprising that his presence should 
be courted on such occasions; and accord- 
ingly, we find him sent for from Edmond- 
byers, Hexham, Morpeth, and other places, — 
a practice, by the way, which is not to be re- 
commended. In ninety cases out of every 
hundred it might not only be injurious in its 
effects to the individual himself, but would 
be sure to destroy the influence of God upon 
the meeting — leading to certain preparations 
and exhibitions, which would terminate in 
self-inflation, embarrassment, or something 
worse. A love-feast is chiefly for the society 
in the place ; and the speaking there should 
be the spontaneous overflowings of the soul: 
hence it is that almost every society has its 
love-feast ; and finer strokes of native elo- 
quence have been heard in those meetings 
than are frequently found to grace the pulpit. 



wall's exd mixer. 69 

In Crister's case, if allowed at all, it must 
be admitted as an exception ; and no par- 
ticular evil resulted from the various invi- 
tations received. He looked upon invitations 
as mere tokens of Christian friendship, and 
speaking followed as a thing of course, from 
the circumstance of his being present. He 
diffused, nevertheless, unusual life, and with 
it a fine religious feeling through a meeting, 
the whole of which he referred to God, with- 
out whom there is nothing wise, nothing 
holy, nothing good. 

In the course of one of his love-feast jour- 
neys his patience was a little put to the test. 
On his first visit to Edmondbyers he was ac- 
companied by Mr. Jas. Wilson, who had bor- 
rowed a horse and gig for the occasion. Cris- 
ter was a stranger to the whip and the rein; 
and Mr. W., who took the command of both, 
had all his skill called into exercise by the 
temper and tricks of the horse, who was 
small in size, and reported to have had his 
first training among some gipsies in the 
neighbourhood of Hexham. On coming to a 
steep hill the animal became restive ; and 
while whipping, and coaxing, and patting, 
and backing, and sidling were alternately 
tried, a neighbouring curate honoured the 
poor collier and his companion with his pre- 
sence, his counsel, and his aid. After much 
trouble, they again got the vehicle in mo- 
tion. On coming, however, to a farm house, 
which fortunately happened to be the resi- 



TO wall's end miner. 

dence of a friend, the animal again became 
restive, and resolutely stood to his purpose. 
The good friend made his appearance, and 
seeing the circumstances in which they were 
placed, proposed to yoke a large dray-horse 
as a leader, stating, in pleasantry, that if the 
gig poney would not draw, the horse was suf- 
ficiently powerful to draw both him and the 
gig, with the guests to boot. Time was short, 
and the period for being at Edmondbyers was 
fixed. Poor Crister, in his simplicity, con 
eluded the horse to be under Satanic influence, 
stating that the devil had done it, to prevent 
them from getting to the love-feast. Mr. 
Wilson, on the other hand, attributed it, as 
was natural in an instructer of youth, to edu- 
cation, with the addition of a probable want 
of provender. The result was, the pony was 
taken out of the shafts, and introduced to the 
manger ; and with a view to expedite the 
journey, Mr. B.'s horse was brought out, 
which, compared with the other, was more 
fit for a wagon than for a gig. The gig hav- 
ing been shaped for a pony rather than a 
horse, the shafts were expanded to admit the 
huge animal within their embrace. All being 
ready, the travellers again proceeded, the 
horse and the gig forming a perfect contrast; 
the one lightly dancing over the stones, and 
the other moving on with the ponderosity of 
an elephant. The good people at Edmond- 
byers were on the look out, and were not a 
little surprised to find visiters drawn in such 



wall's end miner. 71 

style. Crister was a good deal chafed in spi- 
rit with it ; but prayer and the love-feast soon 
restored the mind to its wonted tone. 

Though there are many eyes and ears open 
in a love-feast, the presence of the people 
seemed to weigh but little with him compared 
with the presence of God ; nor was he aware, 
apparently, of the power of his own language 
and thoughts upon others, or that any thing 
that he said would live beyond the hour, or 
be felt beyond the occasion. The truth is, 
he was one in every place, and in that place, 
one with God. In a love-feast in one of the 
chapels on the banks of the Tyne, and not 
long before his demise, he observed, with 
his accustomed cheerfulness — " Thank the 
Lord, I am packed up, and ready ! — just like 
a person waiting for the coach. It will not 
do for a man to be preparing for his journey, 
when the coach is at the door ; or to be look- 
ing in another direction, while passing. In 
the first instance, the coachman is timed, and 
cannot wait for him ; and in the second, the 
coach may have passed — be gone — and quite 
out of sight ; rendering it impossible for him 
to overtake it. And then, what is the conse- 
quence ? The journey is delayed — the next 
coach may be full — and the only chance of 
securing the object of the journey is perhaps 
lost for ever ! O, friends, let us be on the 
look out, ready at a moment's notice — waiting 
with patience till our change come !" This 
is as accordant with the general sentiment of 



72 wall's end miner. 

Scripture, on the brief and precarious stay of 
man in this world, as some of the preceding 
imagery is agreeable to our notions of pro- 
gressive improvement in the divine life ; 
nor is the language itself out of character. 
It will furnish an admirable precursor to the 
" chariot of fire, and horses of fire," passing, 
as it were, between heaven and earth, and 
which conveyed the perfected spirit of the 
prophet to the land of light and glory ; — an 
incident in the closing moments of the seer, 
beautifully expressed by the bard of Shef- 
field :— 

" Elijah, with his mantle, smote the flood, 
And Jordan's hastening waves divided stood ; 
The fiery chariot, on the farther shore, 
Deathless to heaven the ascending prophet bore : 
' My father !' cried Elisha, as he flew ; 
1 Lo ! Israel's chariot and his horsemen too :' 
Then with the mantle, as it dropp'd behind, 
Came down a power, like mighty rushing wind, 
And as he wrapp'd the trophy round his breast, 
Elijah's spirit Elisha's soul possess'd." 

As it was through the effect of fire, as will be 
seen in the sequel, that the subject of the pre- 
sent remarks fell ; so it will also be perceived, 
that, as he, in his own expressive language, 
was " packed up and ready," he only fell to 
rise with " the chariot of Israel, and the 
horsemen thereof." 

He was exceedingly adroit in laying hold 
of Scripture incidents and narratives, on pub- 
lic occasions, and making them subserve the 
devout purposes of his mind, in reference to 



wall's end miner. 73 

others. Having read the affecting account of 
" Ananias and Sapphira his wife," he en- 
tered a fellowship-meeting warm from the 
subject, and took it up in the course of his 
own experimental narration. " This man 
and woman," said he, " had sold their pos- 
sessions, and proposed to have ail things in 
common with others. They had attended a 
few meetings, — got their hearts touched, — 
and resolved to lay the produce of the sale 
4 at the apostles' feet.' But not being well 
grounded in religion, or only having a bit of 
something which they called religion, they no 
sooner left the meeting than the world enter- 
ed into their hearts again. Part of that which 
they had promised to God, they resolved to 
keep back ; and when Ananias went to the 
meeting with a view to pay the money, Peter 
found him short in his accounts, and charged 
him with being brim-full of the devil and of 
the world, and with lying to the Holy Ghost. 
He had lost the bit of religion he had, — if he 
ever had any. Peter told him plainly that 
the property was his own — in his own power 
— to do what he liked with, before it was sold ; 
but that, in changing his purpose, he had 
4 not lied unto men, but unto God.' He was, 
therefore, in order to strike terror into the 
hearts of others, smitten with instant death. 
His wife, not knowing what had been done, 
and being a good bit behind her time, came 
into the meeting, as if nothing were the mat- 
ter. But Peter was in the secret ; and was 



74 wall's end miner. 

aware that she was not only ' privy to it,' 
but had leagued with him to deceive and to 
forge lies : and the very feet of those who 
had buried her husband, she was told, were 
at the door, to carry her out to the grave. 
What was the consequence? ' Great fear 
came upon all the church, and upon as many 
as heard these things.' It is an awful thing, 
friends," continued he, " to keep any thing 
back from God ; and still worse to tell lies 
about it. We were all promised to God in 
our baptism, and we have often promised to 
give our hearts to him since then, but we 
have kept back part, if not the whole. 
Here, blessed be the Lord, we may have 
all things in common, — for we may all be 
holy and happy." Then, with one of his 
quick turns, he exclaimed — " All who are 
happy and resolved to give their hearts to 
God — stand up." This was sudden and un- 
expected ; and two gay young persons who 
had been admitted into the meeting were 
scarcely prepared for the test. Crister per- 
ceiving this, and with a view to deepen con- 
viction, and effectually to sever the sincere 
from the trifler, proceeded — "I ask it, in the 
name of the Lord, and charge you not — even 
in action, ' to lie to the Holy Ghost.' Re- 
collect the case of Ananias and Sapphira !" 
One of the females alluded to, somewhat 
affected, made a trembling essay to rise, 
while the other, as much afraid of appear- 
ing singular, by sitting alone, as she was un- 



wall's end miner. 75 

prepared to make a free surrender of herself 
to God, continued to hold her by her attire, 
in order to prevent her. Without attempting 
to justify those little advantages taken of hu- 
man feeling, and which often hurry people 
into resolutions they are unprepared to fulfil, 
the conflict was strong in the present case ; 
the call, coupled with the name of the Lord, 
was like a summons from heaven; and the 
frightful end of the persons struck dead, 
for withholding that from the church which 
was of less moment than that of withholding 
themselves from Him who says — " Give me 
thy heart" operated so powerfully upon them, 
that a visible profession was the result. They 
stood confused, and pale with fear, while 
others exulted in the God of their salvation. 

Another example of this kind occurred at a 
fellowship-meeting at Carville. Crister di- 
rected his way to the singing pew, at the mo- 
ment a hallowed influence was felt by the 
people and cautioned any against leaving the 
chapel who were solicitous of the divine fa- 
vour, without securing it. All who were 
penitent were requested to stand up ; some 
hesitated : but fifteen persons pressed toward 
the singing pew, and several entered into 
Christian liberty. 

With an air of Christian cheerfulness, 
when once in a love-feast at Fawdon, he look- 
ed around upon the people, and being in a situ- 
ation w r here he could see nearly the whole, he 
said, " Let me look at your faces; I should 



76 wall's end miner. 

like us to know each other, when we reach 
heaven ; and it appears to me, if we feel and 
pray as we do now, we really shall get 
there. We must walk in the way, if we 
wish to gain the end." The possibility, nay, 
the probability, of saints upon earth know- 
ing each other in heaven, was often the sub- 
ject of delightful anticipation with Crister : 
and certainly the advocates of cognition 
rather than recognition have less evidence 
to support their sentiments than the latter. 
There was cognition in the case of Peter on 
the mount, when he realized the persons of 
" Moses and Elias ;" but having seen and 
known them there, it would not be difficult 
to recognise them in heaven. But there are 
numerous inferential intimations to be col- 
lected on the subject in the sacred pages. 
Who was it that told Adam that Eve was to 
be his wife, when she was introduced to 
his presence % Who was it that informed the 
rich man, in the profound depths of hell, that 
. yonder personage — changed in appearance 
and glorified, in the heights of heaven — was 
Lazarus, who recently lay at his gate ? To 
say that this is parable, alters not the ques- 
tion ; for while history shows what has been, 
parable shows what may be ; and hence the 
probability of recognition. Look there upon 
Saul, with a foul old beldam for his com- 
panion, and his person completely disguised! 
Who is it — thus accompanied and thus 
disfigured — that informs Samuel it is the 



wall's end miner. 77 

Jewish monarch who appears in his pre- 
sence? Should such knowledge be referred 
to God in one case, we have only to refer it 
to him in another, with a view to obviate the 
same difficulties. Bat who is to inform St. 
Paul at the last day that such and such per- 
sons in the immense crowds placed before 
him have been brought to a knowledge of 
the truth through his ministry? They are to 
be his crown of rejoicing in heaven. But 
knowledge must form the basis of his joy ; he 
must know them, previously to his rejoicing 
in them. 

Crister was not a man that busied him- 
self in other people's concerns. His con- 
versation was emphatically religious. When 
he heard of the extension of the work of 
God in any particular place, he assumed the 
character of a messenger of glad tidings; and 
like a courier, would have communicated it 
from post to post; sometimes, when passing 
the house of a friend in haste, either naming 
it in the door- way, or, in louder accents, 
sending it through the window, with his face 
against the glass. It was only with his most 
intimate friends, however, that he would pre- 
sume on the latter, and when hastening home 
from the pit in his working habiliments, un- 
willing that they should remain longer with- 
out knowing what would yield as much de- 
light to them as to himself. 

When, in his remarks, he was led to make 
an observation or two upon character or of- 



78 wall's end miner. 

fice, he was generally pointed — often instruct- 
ive — and almost invariably on the side of 
candour. Speaking of a preacher, he said, 
" His preaching is just like a snowy day ; it 
does not only fall soft, but searches, and finds 
its way through every crevice; it hits all — it 
misses nothing." Of another, he said, " He 
has a large body. May the Lord grant him 
an enlarged soul! and may the whole soul 
be thrown into God's work ; and in that work 
may both be worn out !" 

On a preacher being appointed to the cir- 
cuit, he manifested the anxiety of a person 
expecting a relative or absent friend, to ob- 
tain the first glance of him, and as his pa- 
tience rarely held out till he appeared before 
the congregation, he would make repeated 
calls at the house of Mr. Reay, inquiring — 
" Has he come yet?" On his arrival, he was 
certain of a welcome from Crister. After the 
usual salutation, he asked a young preacher, 
with his wonted ardour, and a degree of ab- 
ruptness, " What do you preach for?" Per- 
ceiving him a little at a loss for an answer, in 
consequence of not fully comprehending his 
meaning — " Do you preach for souls?" he 
subjoined. The manner, as well as the time, 
of proposing such a question, would have 
carried with it an air of impertinence, from 
the lips of many other men ; but from Cris- 
ter, to those who knew him, it was a question 
of solicitude for the prosperity of the church ; 
and as he entertained the highest opinion of 



wall's end miner. 79 

the preachers, he expected an answer only in 
the affirmative. 

With a view to suppress all false reasoning, 
and to inspire genuine confidence in God, he 
adverted to the case of the disciples when on 
the coasts opposite to Dalmanutha, without 
the persons to whom he was speaking being 
aware of his design. He graphically repre- 
sented " the twelve" in social discourse with 
each other, and expressing, in the temporary 
absence of their master, their doubts and fears 
respecting him, together with his works, with 
great freedom. Just at the moment they 
were beginning to warm, as " they reasoned 
among themselves," Jesus unexpectedly ap- 
peared in the midst of them, abruptly, and 
pointedly asking, while fixing his rebuking 
eye upon each, " O ye of little faith ! why 
reason ye among yourselves?" — " What a 
mazer" said Crister, flashing his own reprov- 
ing eye upon those for whom he intended it, — 
" What a mazer* that would be for the disci- 
ples ! W T hy, they would scarcely know where 
to put their heads ! They w.ould be quite 
ashamed of themselves." Connected with 
this was a practical improvement ; — that 
our Lord is unchangeable in his goodness 
and power — what he once did he can still 
do — men should reason less, and believe more 
— the divine eye is upon us in every place, 
and the divine ear is open to our remarks. 

" W r ild fire !" he exclaimed one day : " I 
* How it would surprise and confound. 



80 wall's end miner. 

have had the fire of heaven burning on the 
altar of my heart for the last twenty years. 
People may call it what they like ; it keeps 
me warm and comfortable, and I am resolved 
to keep up the flame." He knew, that as the 
fire in the Jewish temple was never permitted 
to become extinct, but was fed by night and 
by day ; so in the human temple, the fire of 
divine love, of which the other was an em- 
blem, was never designed to be otherwise 
than bright and animating. " People," said 
he, on the same subject, " talk about not be- 
ing able to get through their work. There is 
nothing like the love of God for this. I can 
get through twice as much with it than with- 
out it. It bears the mind with cheerfulness 
above it, and inspires the body w T ith fresh 
energy to do it." He knew as well the dif- 
ference between heavenly and " strange 
fire," as he did between natural heat and 
an artificial flame ; and while others " baked 
bread upon the coals" of the idols they 
had made, as in the days of Isaiah, he only 
would receive the bread which cometh down 
from heaven, as he was resolved to live under 
the animating influence of its genuine fires. 
As the " living creatures," therefore, of 
Ezekiel, the " appearance" of Christians^ in 
his estimation was to be that of " burning 
coals of fire." 

Showing the best way of settling a disputed 
point, where the case would admit of it, by a 
reference to deeds rather than words, he ad- 



wall's end miner. 81 

verted to the case of John Baptist, who sent 
his disciples to Jesus, inquiring, " Art thou 
he that should come, or do we look for 
another?" " Here," said the domestic ex- 
positor, " instead of answering them in so 
many words, our Lord immediately set to 
work to perform a few more miracles, and in 
these he said, ' Go, and show John again 
those things which ye do hear and see : the 
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk ; 
the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear ; 
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the 
gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, 
whosoever shall not be offended in me.' " 
Then, comprehended in a single remark or 
two, followed a pointed improvement or ap- 
plication : and although he might not in 
every instance be in critical accordance 
with the context, yet it is remarkable to 
find, how — unaided by note or comment — 
correct his views in general were, and with 
w T hat aptitude and readiness he could eluci- 
date and apply the sacred text on particular 
occasions. 

Speaking of the means of grace, and his 
own expectations in them, he surprised his 
friends into his views and feelings, by taking 
them in imagination to Jerusalem, and there 
placing them before " the gate of the temple, 
which is called beautiful." " See," said he, 
" i a man, lame from his mother's womb.' 
Thither he had been carried, and there he is 
' laid dailv.' Ask him, poor thing, — ' Do 
6 



82 wall's end miner. 

you expect to get any thing to-day? while 
sitting there, begging alms? His answer 
is, ' To be sure I do, otherwise I should ne- 
ver have left home,' Now, like the beggar 
at the beautiful gate, I never go out without 
expecting to receive something ; and when I 
go ' into the temple at the hour of prayer, 
like ' Peter and John,' I never wait there 
any length of time without receiving. I go 
expecting — I continue asking — and I never 
come away disappointed." 

Life was a journey ; and while he secured 
a proper supply of provision to support him 
on the road, he would say, with great earnest- 
ness and resolution, " I am determined, by 
the help of God, to be at the end" Life 
was a race ; and with equal ardour, he would 
exclaim, " No man shall have my crown ; I 
am resolved to wear my own ; it will fit me 
best." He saw the goal at the end of the 
race, and the crown suspended over it. He 
took the goal on his way to the crown. He 
aimed at the " mark" of holiness, that he 
might secure the " prize" of heaven; and in 
order to effect his purpose, he pursued his 
object with ardour, exclaiming with the apos- 
tle, " This one thing I do, forgetting those 
things which are behind, and reaching forth 
unto those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark, for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

He had been at Brunswick Place Chapel, 
Newcastle, on the first introduction of the 



wall's end miner. 83 

gas into it; and being at a season of the 
year when a dim glow was scarcely percepti- 
ble to a person who knew the gas to be par- 
tially on, at the commencement of the ser- 
vice, and still less so to one not looking for 
it, he sat in the crowd insensible to every 
external object, except the preacher. The 
shades of the evening continuing to deepen, 
the features of the preacher began at length 
to disappear : just at the moment a deep ve- 
nerable gloom overshadowed the whole inte- 
rior, the person who had the management of 
the gas turned the tap, and in the twinkling 
of an eye filled the place with a body of 
pure, intense, and soft light, from so many 
distinct flames, the most liquid in their ap- 
pearance, and the least offensive to human 
vision. It operated on Crister like the trans- 
figuration upon the apostles, who, in all pro- 
bability, closed their eyes beneath the " raven 
wing of night," and in the midst of its dark- 
ness and stillness, unexpectedly opened them 
in the centre of a full blaze of glory — glory 
increased in its intensity by the gloom which 
preceded, and the " blackness of darkness" 
which still lay beyond. Being in a sweet 
frame of mind, he seemed to have sprung into 
the regions of light, without once touching 
" the valley of the shadow of death" between. 
" O," said he, in his warmth and simpli- 
city afterward, " it was like the sudden illu- 
mination of a human mind by the Spirit of 
God: and aye, when God turns the tap, and 



84 wall's end miner. 

says, i Let there be light,' darkness disap- 
pears in an instant." It comported well 
with his notions of an instantaneous work, 
and with a body and mind formed for action. 
With this too he was not only more deeply 
impressed, but sooner attracted. 

Passing along one of the streets in New- 
castle, he made a momentary pause, to look 
at the unloading of a cart before the door of 
a cheesemonger. " I watched the men," said 
he : " one was in the cart, and the other was 
in the door-way. He that was in the cart 
threw one cheese after another, as fast as he 
could; and the man in the door-way was 
always ready to receive them ; he never once 
missed. You would have been astonished, 
if you had seen him, — he did it with such 
ease, and confidence, and readiness. I 
thought at the time, why, this is just like 
faith and works in the reception and use of 
gospel blessings. God has plenty to give; 
we should stand in the way, and be ready to 
receive; nay, we should be in a state of ex- 
pectation for the coining blessing ; and be- 
lieving that it is intended for us, we should 
lay hold of it with confidence, and then hand 
it to others. Aye, I should like to be a good 
kepper; just ready to catch the blessings as 
they come, while the Lord, in his bounty, is 
dealing them out." While employing the 
provincialisms of hep, kepping, and a kepper, 
he conveyed the notion at the same time of a 
person playing with balls, fully confident in 



wall's end mixer. 85 

his dexterity and skill, throwing them up, and 
catching them in their fall, — several of them, 
and for a given period, without missing one ; 
only in his association of the men and the 
cheese, there was more of duty than sport, — 
something more substantially useful than 
balls, — something in the shape of a Stilton 
or a double Glo'ster, — or from the less re- 
mote dairies of Cheshire. 

On his Sabbath visits to Newcastle he ge- 
nerally found his way to Mr. Nesham's class, 
and occasionally led it. " You must come 
down to Carville," said he to Mr. N., " and 
meet our class some time. The leader will 
be glad to see you ; there are five and twenty 
members; he stands in the midst of us like a 
father, and we all look up to him like chil- 
dren. We are as happy as the day is long." 
This is a pretty picture of a class meeting, 
and is just what a leader and his members 
ought to be to each other. Being asked, on 
one of these occasions, on his return home, 
where he had been, and whom he had seen ? 
" At Newcastle," he replied, " and I saw 
such a one" — naming the person ; M he is 
full of heaven, — as full as an air balloon ;" 
intimating that he would one day mount up- 
ward — light as a thing of air — yet full of 
majesty and grace. A person once observed 
of Crister himself, that he had " a soul like a 
thimble ; — it was soon filled, and soon empti- 
ed." His conceptions, however, far exceeded, 
in occasional magnificence, the personal cri- 
ticisms of his friend. 



86 wall's end miner. 

There was much less extravagance in his 
representations than those around him were 
authorized to expect, from the vividness of 
his imagination and impressions ; and he 
rarely failed to give a distinct picture of 
the thing itself, not only for the mental eye 
to repose upon for the moment, but to be 
hung up in the chambers of the mind — that 
the by-stander might again and again return 
to it, and participate in the pleasure at first 
imparted. In cases where the images were 
either imperfect, or not sufficiently indelible, 
they would still appear and vanish in their 
passage through the mind, like the figures of 
a phantasmagoria, awakening half-forgotten 
associations in some, and gratifying the curi- 
osity of others. Many of his sayings and 
similes have become household things on 
the banks of the Tyne. To a friend he ob- 
served, when speaking of the malignity and 
perseverance of Satan, — " He will pursue the 
saint with the same temptation for years — to 
death itself — yes, to the very verge of hea- 
ven. And look at him there ; — unable to 
pass the threshold, he lays one hand on the 
gate-post, to support himself, and stretches 
forth the other to make a click (catch) at the 
soul just as it slips in before him, — but hang 
goes the door, and snaps his fingers." While 
speaking, the action was suited to the sub 
ject — shaking his own hand, after drawing 
in his arm, and applying his fingers to his 
lips, as if to sooth the pain on being suddenly 



wall'l end miner. 87 

trapped. It is not improbable, that there was 
a distant reflection in this of the conduct of 
St. Paul in the pursuit of a higher calling, 
who followed after — who pressed toward — 
" reaching forth to those things which were 
before" — and so throwing himself, as it were, 
at the last step, upon the prize, by a last and 
rigorous effort of nature ; securing, however, 
what Satan had lost. 

The lower part of the New Road Chapel, 
Newcastle, having been employed as a gra- 
nery for some years, Crister mourned over 
what he deemed a desecration of the place, 
and the depressed state of the work of God 
that occasioned it. On the dawn of a brighter 
day, when the entire place was converted to 
its original use, he exceedingly rejoiced ; say- 
ing, " There could be no prosperity in the 
midst of the world ; but when the old fusty 
corn was removed, God began to work. 
Christians form the church of God ; their 
hearts are like places of worship ; but be- 
fore God will take up his constant abode with 
them, there must be a clean sweep ; all the 
rubbish of sin — all the fusty grain of this 
world, must be got quit of. We have an ex- 
ample of it in the New Road Chapel. Who 
but thieves will become buyers and sellers 
in the temple? There is nothing but the 
whip for them, if the house is again to be- 
come a house of prayer." 

Some of the young men having been be- 
having improperly down the pit, as in cases 



OS WALL'S END MINER. 

already noticed, and displaying more than 
usual profligacy, a person standing by, re- 
marked, " That really beats the devil." ' Cris- 
ter, who was within hearing, anxious to im- 
prove the expression, sharply subjoined, " I 
would not give a half-penny cabbage for the 
man that cannot beat the devil." He knew 
that Satan could only be conquered through 
grace, — that every Christian possessed 
grace, — and that little hope could be enter- 
tained of the safety of those who were under 
Satanic power. " Who," said he, on another 
occasion, when endeavouring to dissuade sin- 
ners from hastening to ruin, — " Who would 
go to hell, that can prevent it ? What a 
poverty-stricken place must that be, which 
cannot afford so much as a drop of water to 
wet the tongue of a rich man !" Such was 
the esteem in which he was held* and the 
value of his remarks, that the fact of his hav- 
ing uttered them was like the stamp of roy- 
alty upon a coin ; they became sterling, and 
found immediate circulation, — and that, too, 
very often independent of the quality of the 
metal, and the size of the model. The veri- 
est mites were often received with enthusi- 
asm, and added, like those of the poor widow, 
to the treasury of those who possessed a trifle, 
and became a real treasure to those who had 
none. 



WALLS END MINER. 



CHAPTER V. 



Progress in piety — His usual place of retirement — An- 
swers to prayer — Prays for the preachers — Conversions — • 
He is not to be taken in all things as a model — His exemp- 
tion from frivolity — A peculiarity in his conceptions — His 
conduct under severe providential dispensations — Personal 
affliction — Attempts to do good in a pecuniary way — His 
benevolence of character — Grateful acknowledgments — He 
aids a poor widow — A love^feast — Singing — A dream — Mr. 
B ram well — A garden. 

Being always on the alert himself in mat- 
ters of religion, he was a perpetual spur to 
the indifference of others. " Never," he 
would say, " be on the same ground to-day 
you were upon yesterday." He was like a 
bird on the wing, and he would suffer no one 
around him, over whom he had the least in- 
fluence, to slumber longer on the perch than 
was necessary. 

On his children annoying him in moments 
of communion with God, and yet being en- 
gaged in such little amusements as to render 
reproof and correction unnecessary, he would 
take up the key of the chapel, which place 
was nearly next to his own door, and would 
there lock himself in, and enjoy, undisturb- 
ed, the presence of his Maker in his own 
sanctuary. 

His partiality to prayer, and the frequent 
peculiarity of his manner, are subjects allud- 
ed to elsewhere; but as tests of his sincerity 
in the exercise of the duty, and of the strength 



90 wall's end miner. 

of his faith in his pleadings, we must look to 
the issue. 

When Mr. Keay, his class-leader, met 
with a severe accident in the pit, by a fall of 
stone from the roof, and from the effects of 
which there was not the most distant hope of 
ultimate recovery entertained by his medical 
attendants — the marvel being, after the crush- 
ing and breaking of bones, that he survived 
at all, Crister was deeply distressed. Till 
about the eighth or tenth day all were in 
despair except Crister, who was about six 
days in advance of the whole with his faith 
and hope. Many were his wrestlings with 
God on the behalf of his leader and his 
friend ; and on the third day after the acci- 
dent, he came to Mrs. Reay, who was unable 
to pierce the cloud, with the animated looks 
and expression of a person who had discover- 
ed some hidden treasure, exclaiming, " The 
master will get better !" Mrs. R. inquired, 
" Why do you say so?" " I have just been 
praying,' 5 he returned, " and the Lord has 
shown me that he will go to chapel again 
with an up and a down ;" meaning that he 
would recover, and go halting to the house 
of God. And such was the fact ; for as " the 
sun rose upon" Jacob after the angel of the 
Lord "touched" him, and as he was enabled, 
through the good hand of God upon him, 
after " the sinew shrank," to " pass over 
Penuel," though "he halted on his thigh;" 
so the same sun shone on Mr. Reay, who 



wall's end miner. 91 

passed from his house to the chapel, and 
though " with an up and a down," walked 
before Crister — pursuing the avocations of 
life, five years after the afflicting event, and 
was left to walk before others after Crister's 
own decease. As the revelation of his reco- 
very was nrst made to this good man, and 
made in the exercise of prayer, Christianity 
warrants us to admit the probability of his 
restoration being in answer to the devout 
breathings of his soul to heaven, in connec- 
tion with the prayers of others. When Mrs. 
R. was seriously indisposed, his prayers were 
also offered up for her ; and one of the sen- 
tences, as striking for the alliteration, as it 
Was distinguished for the fervour with which 
it was uttered — " Lord, give her health or 
heaven," is worthy of record. She had the 
former, and is still on the way to the latter. 

On a Sabbath morning, Crister had been 
up early, as wont, and he was soon joined 
by a few friends, who united with him in 
prayer for the preacher for the day. Mr. 
Nichol, of Newcastle, who was planned for 
Carville, attended to his appointments. He 
had fixed on his texts, and made suitable pre- 
paration for addressing his auditories. The 
afternoon service passed off as previously in- 
tended ; but the mind became unsettled with 
regard to the evening, in consequence of the 
text and subject selected becoming matters 
of perplexity. He opened his mind to Mr. 
and Mrs. R., who wisely and religiously ad- 



92 wall's end miner. 

vised him to yield to the impressions of the 
mind respecting any other subject that might 
be proposed, and with which he might be 
impressed. He took the advice— retired 
after tea — when a text which had occurred 
was sought for, and with some difficulty 
found. He took it up, without seeing his 
way clearly into it, and without being en- 
tirely free from some distracting preferences 
with regard to the one previously fixed upon. 
Here he stood, as between two parties — one 
pulling in one direction, and the other in 
another, with the argument of preparation 
on the one hand, and that of impression on 
the other — the natural texture of his intel- 
lectual character giving its voice in favour of 
the former. He went to chapel, and remain- 
ed undecided, till nearly the close of the 
second hymn, when he threw himself upon 
the text at a venture, praying for divine light 
into it. The liberty and enlargement of spi- 
rit which he experienced was marked by his 
hearers ; while to himself he seemed to be a 
mere machine in the hand of God, who was 
employing him for his own purposes, without 
the power to guide, or having the credit of 
being master of his own thoughts. The only 
key to this is, the conversion of five persons 
under the evening sermon ; and how far, in 
the mysterious proceedings of God — whom 
we cannot suppose to have deserted the 
Christian pulpit — the prayers of Crister and 
his friends influenced the case, eternity alone 



wall's end miner. 93 

will reveal. It will be admitted, at all events, 
that if there was more prayer for the success 
of preachers, and less said on the subject of 
their separate qualifications, both the church 
and the world would profit more by their 
discourses. 

Some time after this, Crister, who clung to 
the preachers of the gospel like a child to his 
nurse, set Mr. N,, in company with some 
other friends, on part of his road home through 
the fields. It was when the days were short ; 
the night was cold and dark ; the foot-path 
was little more than dimly visible ; but be- 
fore this devotional spirited man could leave 
the person who had been feeding him with 
the bread of life, he would have a prayer- 
meeting ; and, accordingly, at the point of 
parting, in the open air, he turned his face to 
the stars twinkling through the azure vault 
above, as Daniel turned his face to Jerusa- 
lem, and implored the blessing of heaven 
upon each of the party, but especially on him 
who had thus been ministering to them — 
bearing a lively recollection of the good done 
in the course of his previous visit — and pray- 
ing that he might be still more abundantly 
useful in promoting the salvation of souls. 
This was not a solitary case. He has been 
known to pause in the middle of a turnpike 
road, whether in the dark or in the light, to 
pray aloud on parting with a friend, and to 
request that friend to pray with him for a mu- 
tual blessing. These brief, and apparently 



94 wall's end miner. 

erratic movements, were like so many safety- 
valves for the purpose of letting off his effer- 
vescing feeling. By a lady, like Mrs. Trol- 
lope, who, in her book on America, has given 
a ludicrous caricature of the Methodists in the 
west of the United States, such conduct would 
scarcely be deemed decorous : but Crister re- 
collected the " river-side" prayer-meeting 
at " Philippi," of which another example- 
still awaits the reader. 

He made it a constant point to pray for the 
preacher whom he was going to hear. " O, 
Lord, 5 ' said he, in reference to one, " grant 
that the moment thy servant places his foot 
on the pulpit stairs, he may rise a step into 
thee ! With the second, may he rise another 
step into thee ! And thus, may he continue 
to rise step after step, till he reach the top !" 
The excellent man, who heard him pray be- 
fore he went to chapel, could not but advert 
to the petitions which had thus gone to hea- 
ven before he entered ; and as he ascended 
the sacred stand, he could not but feel their 
influence. The substance of a petition like 
this, for a Christian minister, is no more than 
what the psalmist prayed for on the behalf 
of the multitude, when, with holy ardour, he 
said — " Save thy people, and bless thine in- 
heritance ; feed them also, and lift them up 
for ever." 

When he was in company with persons 
who partook in some measure of his own 
spirit and views, and shared in the liveliness 



wall's end miner. 95 

of his own fancy, it was dangerous for gra- 
vity to be near. He was praying in the 
house of a friend on a Saturday evening, and 
being: desirous that Mr. C, who knelt by his 
side, should be in the spirit on the Lord's 
day, he abruptly turned his face toward him, 
and asked in a hurried manner, as if hem- 
ming in a parenthesis to the prayer — " Where 
will you be to-morrow ?" Mr. C, with equal 
quickness returned, " If you had been inspir- 
ed, you would have known that L" - Crister, 
not in the least discomposed, and as if there 
had been no pause in the petitions, instantly 
turned his thoughts to the inspirations of the 
Holy Ghost, without which the word is but a 
" dead letter," and the minister himself a 
" tinkling cymbal," and prayed most fer- 
vently, that both preacher and people — in 
whatsoever part of the vineyard the lot of 
the former might be cast — might be inspired 
from above. Happily, he had but few imita- 
tors in these outbreakings. They were tole- 
rated in himself; but in another they would 
have been as insufferable as they would have 
appeared unnatural. It is one of those evils 
which seems to be left as an entail upon imi- 
tators, that where there is an imperfection 
in a person admired or loved, the imperfec- 
tion is next to certain to be adopted, and to 
appear most conspicuous as a graft. It almost 
invariably grows out like an unseemly excres- 
cence on the rind of a tree. 

It was not only with others that he would 



96 wall's end miner. 

have indulged in these occasional aberrations, 
which are noticed by way of introducing the 
reader to real character, and which can only 
be viewed as imperfections, but he would 
sometimes soliloquize for a few sentences in 
the midst of a prayer, giving question and 
answer, as in a regular conversation, without 
the slightest apparent chasm, or any diminu- 
tion of devotional feeling. Thus, after hav- 
ing been praying a short time, and recollecting 
that he was surrounded by those with whom 
he had often conversed on religious topics, 
and for whose salvation he had often prayed, 
he said ; " O Lord, there are a number of 
people of whom no one knows what to make. 
We say to them, ' When are you going to 
class?' They say, 'Soon!' But soon never 
comes. This man beside me" — a person of 
whom he had a pretty correct knowledge — 
44 is perhaps saying, 6 Crister means me.' 
Yes — I am going to be very plain ; I do mean 
him." Then, in an instant, and with the ut- 
most fervour, he prayed for individual salva- 
tion. Though charity forbids a classification 
of these things with " spots" in ancient 
" feasts," she does not — while exhorting the 
44 strong to bear the infirmities of the weak" — 
allow us either to countenance, encourage, 
or glory in such freedoms, while kneeling at 
a throne of grace. 

Yet in the midst of some of his little per- 
sonal sallies — never employed but with the 
best intention, and for the real good of the 



wall's end miner. 97 

individual concerned — it is difficult to with- 
hold our approval of his fidelity. He would 
never for a moment — whether entertained in 
the house of rich or poor — allow a compro- 
mise of Christian character with mere eti- 
quette, or conceal his opinion of the moral 
and religious condition of the several mem- 
bers of the family. A person of wealth, un- 
der whose roof he was hospitably treated as 
a guest, being what is denominated " a free 
liver," experienced the weight of both his 
exhortations and intercessions. While en- 
gaged in family prayer, he dwelt emphatically 
on the habits indulged by the head of the 
house ; and then, as if to encourage him to 
break away at once from every sinful bond, 
he exclaimed, "Bless the Lord, it is possible 
— there is hope — the angels may have yet to 
say, and that some day soon, 'Lift up your 
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye 
everlasting doors,' — and let old such a one 
(naming him) come in ; — here he is, the an- 
gelic hosts will say, — we have long been 
looking for him ; — saved at last !" Such an 
ecstasy of feeling accompanied the sentiments, 
that heaven itself seemed opened on the oc- 
casion, and nothing appeared wanting but the 
simple consent of the will — the simple turn 
of one heart, as upon a pivot, to gladden the 
spirits of both " the watchers" above, and 
the " dwellers" below. 

Notwithstanding the almost invariable 
cheerfulness which he manifested, it never 
7 



QB wall's end miner. 

degenerated into frivolity. It was the play- 
fulness of the lamb, whenever it was permit- 
ted to enter within the bare precints of hila- 
rity — innocent in itself, and without the 
slightest evil tendency to others ; and was 
so tempered with the good and the charitable, 
that it was impossible not to perceive that it 
originated in the sunshine of the heart — in 
progressive piety — in a consciousness that he 
was on the move toward a better place, with 
an improved state of feeling. And as his na- 
tive buoyancy was never permitted to betray 
him into improprieties incident to such cha- 
racters, so neither did the adverse movements 
of Providence ever occasion unusual depres- 
sion. While he felt like a parent, and sym- 
pathized as a man and a friend, he could still 
adopt the apostolic language, as expressive 
of his experience, " as sorrowful, yet always 
rejoicing." His sincerity, and the peculiarly 
Christian views he entertained on providence 
and grace, would admit of nothing else. He 
seemed to have a vision of his own very often : 
and like a person sitting in the same room 
with his friends, and under the same circum- 
stances, would either be enjoying a landscape 
in the act of looking out upon it at one win- 
dow, while they were gazing upon the sur- 
rounding district, in a contrary direction, 
from another ; or, if not seated alone, with 
his own view, but looking from the same 
easement with those around him, would be 
certain to fix his eye on the brightest and 



w all's END MIX Ell. 99 

most cheerful spots, while they were repos- 
ing on others, with their more neutral tints, 
in the shade. Some of the larger objects 
and broader outlines would be embraced by 
his companions, while many of the intermedi- 
ate fillings, both in the extreme distance and 
at hand, upon which nature had bestowed the 
greatest harmony of proportion and delicacy 
of colouring, were delighting his own vision. 
The one would frequently pass over what 
would arrest the attention of the other. He 
would pick up a flower, and either point out 
beauties which had remained invisible to his 
associates, or would admire it in silence, with 
a countenance expressive of the pleasure he 
experienced in surveying that which he might 
even fail to explain. But though he occa- 
sionally broke down for want of words to de- 
scribe a thing as it actually appeared in nature, 
or was represented to his mental eye, he ge- 
nerally succeeded to admiration, when he 
sought to illustrate one subject by another, 
and rarely failed to deepen the interest. 

The writer has been partly led into these 
reflections, by the occurrence of two or three 
painful providences in the history of Crister, 
in which God, in the language of the " wise 
woman," was pleased to " quench his coal." 
He had two boys killed ; one in the pit and 
another above ground. The latter was rim 
over by one of the coal wagons, and was 
from six to seven years of age. He was a 
beautiful boy, and full of interest, The first 



100 wall's end miner. 

time his father attended his class after the ac- 
cident, he observed to the leader and to his 
class-mates, in a somewhat chastened tone, 
" It seems as though the Lord had come down 
to look about me, like the gardener going 
into his orchard to examine the fruit trees. 
He goes from one to another; and having 
carefully gone his round, he puts forth his 
hand, and plucks from one that bears the best 
and ripest fruit. The boy whom the Lord 
has been pleased to take from me, was the 
best of all my dear children, and therefore 
the fittest for his own garner. Not my will 
but thine be done !" As he felt perfectly re- 
signed to the will of God after the accident, 
so there was a certain preparedness of feeling 
to meet it. The very week before it occurred, 
he said in a public meeting that his sole wish 
was " to be a mere cipher in the hand of God 
— perfectly passive — to be an3/ thing or no- 
thing." The friends who heard him, on being 
informed of his bereavement, could not but 
advert with devout feelings to the sentiments 
of the previous week ; and certainly they 
harmonized admirably with what followed. 
While Seneca poures forth his laudatory 
strains in favour of the masculine and heroic 
bravery of the Stoics, who put off the man, 
and trod above the stage of human fortune and 
accidents, religion has a much nobler subject 
for eulogy in such a person as Crister, who, 
while he feels as a man, is resigned as a 
Christian, — uniting in himself, as it were, a 



wall's end miner. 101 

double character. He stooped, and struck 
sail to the providence of God; for he well 
knew, that whatever disasters befall a good 
man in his family, unoccasioned by himself, 
they are the work of a permissive providence, 
and that in all the dispensations in which the 
wisdom of God has the greatest share, and 
the wisdom of man the least, there is greater 
cause for adoration than censure — for resig- 
nation than complaint. " Thunderbolts," it 
is stated by one of the ancients, " are never 
more just, than when they are adored by him 
who is thunderstruck." 

Personal afflictions were borne with equal 
patience with those of a domestic character. 
" I have been poorly," said he to a friend one 
day, who was inquiring after his health ; 
" and though I have not been entirely laid 
aside from work, I have found it rather hard 
to do the little I have done. I sometimes 
compare myself to ^n out-patient of the infirm- 
ary. I am not quite bad enough to be taken 
in ; and God keeps handing me out a little 
strength now and then, like medicine. In 
his hand I keep improving, though slowly. 
But all is well within." His breast, which 
was to a certain extent proof against his own 
sufferings, was nevertheless tender toward 
those who were the subjects of fatherly chas- 
tisement ; and so much so, that, in visiting 
the sick, he seemed to go to relieve himself 
rather than the sufferer — relieve himself of 
those yearnings and meltings of heart which 



102 wall's end miner. 

he experienced with regard to their present 
and eternal welfare. This is the man, who 
is sick with another's sickness, and yet tri- 
umphs over his own ! For a man to grieve 
for his own sufferings is weakness; not to 
grieve for those of others, argues a perversity 
of feeling which ought to be dreaded : such a 
man has cause to complain, not of providence, 
but of himself, — not on account of what he 
suffers, but because of what he has merited. 

While Crister employed every mean in his 
power to support himself and his family, he 
was perfectly dead to the world, so far as a 
wish for temporal prosperity went, as well as 
perfectly satisfied with every dispensation 
of God with regard to his health. He was in 
fact one of those men, who, agreeably to an 
opinion of Malvezzi's, would rather have pre- 
ferred adversity than prosperity, though the 
latter might have been calculated upon — not 
in the way of desert, but from his piety and 
industry. He knew enough, in voyaging 
across the ocean of life, to convince him, that 
greater numbers are wrecked in the pacific, 
or, in other words, in the haven of tranquil- 
lity, than amidst the bill owsof conflicting dis- 
asters. Adversity is calculated to humble, 
and therefore it is, that the good man, with a 
fair proportion of this ballast, holds his way 
— king-like — under its pressure ; whereas, 
prosperity tends to swell and inflate the mind, 
and so perverts the whole. Besides — to ac- 
commodate ourselves to the language of the 



wall's end miner. 103 

world, if every man has his fortune, and every 
fortune its wheel, where, it maybe demanded, 
is the propriety of complaining ? The wheel 
of no man can descend so much one way, as 
not necessarily to ascend another. Those 
persons alone complain of what they call for- 
tune, who have their souls so firmly attached 
to their bodies, that when one precipitates, 
the other descends with it. The Christian, 
whose soul possesses one part of the wheel, 
and his body another, is always at adverse 
points. So it was with Crister ; as the body 
descended grave-ward, the soul mounted to 
heaven. He bore his head, aye and his heart too, 
— for his treasure and his conversation were 
in heaven — above the clouds; tempests could 
not reach him ; he was neither shaken by the 
winds, nor smitten by the lightning. 

Limited as were his means of doing good, 
he employed them as far as they would carry 
him ; and was even inventive, in the benevo- 
lence of his heart, in promoting their enlarge- 
ment. The chapel at Carville was repaired 
and beautified in the spring of the year before 
his death ; and a collection being to be made, 
to defray the expenses, he was among the 
' more active to meet the demands, both by 
personal applications for pecuniary aid, and 
by inviting people to attend the services on 
the day of opening. To a friend, whom he 
met in the streets of Newcastle, he said, "You 
must come to our opening to-morrow/' 
Some impediments being in the way, they of 



104 wall's end miner. 

course were offered as an excuse for not ac- 
ceding to the request. " Well, then," re- 
turned Crister, " you must give me something 
to put into the box for you." This being 
readily granted, and to show the person that he 
would lose nothing by his absence from the 
services of the occasion, Crister quietly and 
simply observed, as he put the money into 
his pocket, " You will get a blessing for this, 
for we always pray for those who give us 
any thing." 

In addition to private applications, and 
what he had purposed in his heart to give of 
his own, he was led to contribute in another 
way from that which he at first meditated. 
Thomas Ellerton, a boy already noticed, and 
to whom he had been extremely useful, came 
to him, and expressed a wish that he had 
something to contribute on the occasion, be- 
moaning his poverty. Crister sympathized 
with his little class-mate, who himself was a 
child among children. The boy, as has also 
been observed, went by the name of" the lit- 
tle old man" among the seniors in society, be- 
cause of his stability, good sense, and sedative 
habits. As Crister intended to go to the ex- 
tent of what his purse would allow for him- 
self, he was a little puzzled how to relieve the 
feelings of his juvenile favourite. However he 
sent him away, saying, " I think I shall be able 
to contrive something for you." It was not 
long before he told him that he had hit on a 
plan of relief. " We have a good few leeks," 



wall's end miner. 105 

said he, " in our garden ; and as there are 
more than we shall be likely to want, you 
shall have what we can spare. If you think 
you can find a market for them, you shall sell 
them ; you shall have one half of the money, 
and I will take the other, and the whole shall 
be put into the collection." The boy instant- 
ly sprung at the offer ; a wheel-barrow was 
borrowed — the leeks were pulled, and laid in 
it — the young salesman went through the vil- 
lage, the neighbouring hamlets, and some of 
the more distant places — and continued his 
•toil till he sold the whole. He returned 
home, " though faint," in triumph, bearing his 
prize like a Grecian from the Olympic games, 
and made an offering to the Lord of the whole 
of his share of the sales, to the delight of the 
writer, who made the appeal to the liberality 
of the public on the occasion. Others might 
have given of their abundance — Crister gave 
what he could spare of his penury — and this 
little fellow gave the whole of that which had 
become his all. These " leeks" imparted 
greater joy of heart both to the giver and the 
seller than the whole growth of Egypt could 
have yielded to the languishing Israelites ; 
and the action will retain its verdure in the 
recollection of those who witnessed it, much 
longer than the wreath, composed of the 
olive, the pine, the apple, and the parsley, 
according to the well-known Greek epigram, 
which adorned the brow of the Olympic vic- 
tor. 



106 wall's end miner. 

Crister, who never forgot a kindness, was 
in the frequent habit of taking a part of the 
produce of his garden to persons to whom 
he felt himself laid under obligation, and of 
presenting them with the same. 

A poor widow who had lived in the neigh- 
bourhood was involved in great pecuniary 
distress. Crister heard of it ; and though 
poor himself, it was a treasure to have him 
for her friend. He made an instant and pow- 
erful appeal to the different persons who had 
a little to spare at Carville, and with whom 
he could make free ; and from Carville he 
posted off to Newcastle. At the latter place 
he met with a gentleman in the street, who 
loved him, and could deny him nothing for 
which he asked. " What now, Crister? 1 ' 
" I want a little help, sir, for a poor widow," 
he replied, stating her case. " I am without 
money at present," returned the gentleman, 
" but go to my house, and tell the servant to 
give you such a sum," naming the amount. 
Crister modestly hitched in another sentence, 
which rendered the case a little more impres- 
sive, than he found he had made it by pre- 
vious statement. " Well," returned the gen- 
tleman, " let so much be added to it, and tell 
the servant I sent you." In this way, he pro- 
cured ample relief, and made the widow's 
heart rejoice. 

The religious character of Crister had 
reached the writer's ears previously to his 
residence in Newcastle ; and as such per- 



wall's end miner. 107 

sons occupy a more than usual share of his 
attention and regard, the eye was naturally 
directed toward him. His first appearance 
to the biographer was in a love-feast held in 
Brunswick Place Chapel, September, 1834. 
The circumstances were exceedingly favour- 
able. The Rev. R. Aitkin and Mr. W. 
Dawson were at that time on a visit to New- 
castle and its vicinity. It was emphatically 
a visit in season, as well as a time of refresh- 
ing. There was a great deal of high and 
holy feeling in the members of society, while 
they had to rejoice in an accession to their 
ranks. Crister participated in the general 
joy, as well as shared in the sacred influence 
that prevaded the religious assemblies. The 
last time the writer conversed with him was 
at Carville, May 17th, 1835 ; and then, as he 
had been found in the intervals between, he 
was on his way upward, singing and making 
melody, not only in his heart but with his 
lips, to the Lord. His joy might t>e described 
in the way that a fair author has described a 
brook, not as gliding quietly through a small 
green meadow, but as sounding its approach, 
as in the glad spirit of its young life it comes 
leaping and dancing down a rocky gorge. His 
was a " fulness of joy." 

In the course of the week preceding the 
love-feast, as he was on his way from the 
workings to the bottom of the pit shaft, in 
order to leave for the day, he came up to an 
old man, who was bent with his face down* 



10S wall's end mixer. 

ward, cleaning out the curved line in which 
the wheels of the carriages run, upon which 
the corves are placed. Being a little dull of 
hearing, and intent on his work, Crister's 
hand was on his shoulder, and sending its 
echo along the working, before he was well 
aware of any one being near; and with the 
clap, instantly followed — " Why, man, there 
is a crown hanging over your head I" Like 
one of Bunyan's inimitable characters, who 
is represented in a somewhat similar light, 
but as much more intent upon the earth, 
the old man turned his eye upward, as if to 
gaze upon some new appearance ; but on see- 
ing Crister, the sentence was at once inter- 
preted, and he had a lecture not to forget the 
" things above" while engaged with " things 
below," — to take heed to his own steps, 
while " creasing" the way of the wagon. 
The circumstance was told with great effect, 
and without the least parade, by Crister, who 
carefully improved it in the love-feast. 

Prayer and praise were the delight of his 
soul ; and as he was particularly apt at catch- 
ing a tune, he very often imported a new one, 
on his return from a visit to the societies ; 
thus ringing a constant change, with a view 
to enlighten and elevate the mind. " Sweet 
Home"— "Hallelujah"— " Come to Jesus"— 
"Babylon," &c, were favourites; and to 
give wider circulation to one with which he 
was greatly enamoured, he, poor as he was, 
employed the press. Though extremely par- 



wall's end miner. 109 

tial to the sprightly in music, yet from the 
correctness of his ear, and the influence which 
melody had upon his heart, he manifested less 
vitiated taste than is often found in humble 
life, and among persons possessed of stirring 
qualities, with an inclination to revivalism. 
The introduction of tunes more fit for the 
circus and the chase than the house of God, 
is a subject of occasional regret; and the 
misfortune is, when once they find their way 
among persons similar to the originators — 
possessed of bad ears, weak heads, and warm 
hearts — they become exceedingly offensive, 
and are not easily abandoned. In this way 
Crister was not in the habit of offending. 

The late Rev. Wm. Bramweil highly 
esteemed him for his piety and simplicity; 
and Crister, with equal veneration, adverted 
to his character and labour of love. A short 
time before his death, he dreamed that he 
saw the sainted form of Bramweil, who told 
him to live in a state of preparation for hea- 
ven, and then beckoned him away from earth. 
This, though a dream, had a happy influence 
on his mind, and became an incentive to holi- 
ness. It was sunny and cheering in its cha- 
racter ; and its images, golden bright, glowed 
in his recollection. 

Crister and this excellent minister of God 
very often repaired to the chapel at Carville, 
as early as three o'clock in the morning, for 
the purpose of mutual prayer. On one occa- 
sion, Mr. B. called at his house in the course 



110 wall's end mixer. 

of the day, inquiring for him, without stating 
either his object or expressing a wish to see 
him. When Crister reached home, he was 
informed of the fact, and proceeded to Mr. 
Reay's, where Mr. B. was taking up his abode. 
On the latter being informed that Crister had 
called, and being asked whether he had not 
been inquiring for him, he returned, without 
giving a direct answer, — " Step in." No 
sooner was the room door closed, than Mr. 
B. said, " Let us pray a bit;" and so saying, 
knelt and prayed with his usual fervour. Af- 
ter him, Crister prayed ; and when the meet- 
ing concluded, Mr. B., without any farther 
remark, grasped him by the hand, and dis- 
missed him, saying, " There, that will do." 
On Crister leaving the house, it instantly 
flashed into his mind, " Mr. B. has heard 
something unfavourable of me, and has em- 
ployed this method to try my spirit, in order 
to see whether I have access at a throne of 
grace." To persons who knew Mr. B., 
Crister's conjecture would not appear at all 
unnatural ; and to those who knew Crister, 
whatever a holy jealousy might prompt, on 
the part of Mr. B., an unfavourable report 
was not calculated, had it even been the 
case, to produce a deep impression. He kept 
at the utmost distance from sin ; and under- 
stood well the import of those interrogatories 
of Solomon, " Can a man take fire in his bo- 
som, and his clothes not be burnt? Can one 
go on hot coals, and his feet not be burnt V 9 



wall's end :miner. Ill 

He knew that to avoid evil, was not to go 
near it. 

A visit from Mr. Bramwell was no uncom- 
mon occurrence to him. While engaged in 
his garden one day, Mr. B. drew near, ana 
hung upon the rails. " That is a fine bed of 
tulips," said he. Crister, who was partial to 
his garden, was pleased with the remark, and 
acquiesced in its justice. " They are all 
beautiful" proceeded Mr. B. ; — " they all 
differ — and they all yield a fragrance.' 1 
This was equally agreeable with what pre- 
ceded. " The children of God," continued 
Mr. B., " are all different ; hence the pro- 
priety of their bearing with each other, — 
for there is something beautiful — something 
to be commended in all." A moral lecture 
of this kind was as acceptable as remarks 
on natural beauty. Some time elapsed, when 
Mr. B. changed the subject ; and having seen 
Crister put some seed into the ground, he in- 
quired, " Don't the cocks and hens come now 
and then, and scratch it up ?" " Yes, sir," 
returned Crister. " And how do you feel on 
those occasions ?" subjoined Mr. B. " Why, 
it is hard," returned Crister ; " but then I 
have grace to bear it." He knew, that if 
Christians ought to bear with each other, 
such intelligences should bear with the irra- 
tional part of God's creation. Such, indeed, 
was his native kindness, that he would have 
as soon thrown some grains of corn down to 
them, as attempt to injure them on driving 



112 wall's end miner. 

them away. It was only the principle car- 
ried out to these, that he exercised toward 
his own species — heaping " coals of fire on 
the head" of an enemy. 

But he was exercised in another way. The 
soil was poor, and manure was scarce. The 
latter might have been obtained by making 
free with what belonged to the colliery ; and 
another person had thus made free, in order 
to enrich his crop of potatoes. Crister's 
conscience would not suffer him to take the 
slightest liberty with another person's pro- 
perty ; and his poverty would not allow him 
to go any distance from home to make a pur- 
chase. The result was, that he was obliged 
to set his potatoes without manure: but such 
was the honour God conferred upon his in- 
tegrity, that, though both gardens were dis- 
tinguished for the same soil, he had a much 
larger crop than the person who had planted 
his sets in the heart of stolen materials. 



wall's end miner! 113 

CHAPTER VI. 

A few of his last days — Visit to one of his daughters — 
Has a prayer-meeting in a field — Receives his last ticket- 
Remarkable expressions — Attends the bed of the dying— 
The spirit of prayer — Family worship — Descends the pit for 
the last time. — The Catastrophe — Religious aspect of the 
subject — Extent of the calamity — The rapidity with which 
the fire moved — Kindness, mixed with severity — The guilty 
spared — A merciful providence in the timing of the event — 
1 he general distress occasioned. 

The suddenness of the removal of the sub- 
ject of this memoir will only admit of our 
hovering around the open ground of his last 
days, rather than of our entering within the 
sacred enclosure of his last moments-; — of 
our viewing him, when unconscious of any 
one looking at him in the ordinary business 
of life, rather than when sitting for his reli- 
gious portrait. These are the times and sea- 
sons for arriving at real character, — when a 
man is moving among men, insensible of their 
presence and of their eye. 

He visited one of his daughters, who is 
married, and resides at Little Town, no great 
distance from Durham, on the banks of the 
Wear, the Saturday before his death. It ap- 
pears as though the invisible hand of Heaven 
had conducted him thither, to give to her and 
her family his last blessing. He called upon 
different friends, both on his route to the 
place and on his return, — spoke to them, and 
prayed with them. Not finding any place 
appropriated to public worship at Little Town, 



114 wall's end miner. 

among his own people, and anxious to enjoy 
some means of grace, which he could not do 
in a private dwelling, the houses being clean- 
ed for Sunday, he collected a few serious per- 
sons together, — mostly young men ; and said, 
" Come, lads, the fields will do for me ; and 
if they will do for you, we shall have a prayer- 
meeting in the open air." So saying, he led 
them on to a retired nook on the Saturday 
evening, and there, as a preparation for the 
Sabbath, in that place, unfrequented for such 
purposes, they all knelt down, and prayed 
alternately — for, he afterward observed, in 
the language of an eminent statesman in re- 
ference to another subject, " we had a long 
pull, and a strong pull, and a pull altogether ;" 
thus enjoying that which apostles and pri- 
mitive Christians — only on another day and 
in a more frequented spot — enjoyed, when 
" on the Sabbath" they " went out of the 
city by a river side, where prayer was wont 
to be made ; and sat down, and spake unto 
the" persons " which resorted thither." After 
this out-door exercise, he sat up till late, sing- 
ing and praying with a few friends, to whom 
he observed, among other things, that he 
could not satisfactorily account for his being 
there at that particular time. 

On the forenoon of the Lord's day, a young 
man— a local preacher — addressed such as 
were disposed to hear him in a private dwell- 
ing. Crister was there; and the preacher 
had the aid of his prayers, — having prayed 



wall's end miner. 115 

twice publicly at the close of the address ; 
observing to his daughter afterward, — " The 
lad seemed frightened, and I wished to en- 
courage him. I thought it was a pity for him 
to come such a long way, and get nothing for 
it. But the Lord warmed our hearts, and he 
took some fire ba^k with him." While with 
his daughter, he was incessant in his exhort- 
ations to piety and unity. Desirous of ob- 
taining as much of the bread of life as he 
could, he stopped at Shiney Row, in the 
Sunderland circuit, on his return, and heard 
a sermon on the Sunday evening ; which was 
to him what the " cake baken on the coals, 
and the cruse of water," were to Elijah, 
who " in the strength of that meat" prose- 
cuted the remainder of his journey. 

A person speaking to him on the dangers 
to which colliers were exposed, he remarked, 
J* We should always be ready; th-n sudden 
death will be sudden bliss." On the Tues- 
day before he died, he said to those who were 
sitting around him, " Let us live to God, and 
we shall go off to heaven some day like a 
clap of thunder." It is impossible not to 
associate his quickly approaching exit with 
this form of expression ; — sudden and unex- 
pected to himself, and solemnly impressive 
to others. On the evening of the same day, 
he received his last society ticket from Mr. 
Mann, on which occasion he expressed him- 
self as happy in the religion he possessed ; 
saying, in the course of the evening, when 



116 wall's end miner. 

speaking of vital godliness, " I always like to 
be in the sun, and on the warm side of the 
wall; 9 ' a metaphor well understood by pit- 
men, who before the sun has obtained too 
much power to be oppressive — say, in the 
month of May, will group together, and squat 
themselves by the side of a wall ; and there, 
while enjoying social intercourse with each 
other, will bask beneath his animating beams. 
The nearer we approach the spot where we 
have to part with this good man, the more 
hallowed becomes the character of his per- 
sonal piety, and with the greater confidence 
we leave him to pursue the brief remainder 
of his pilgrimage alone. In the course of 
the evening previous to his death he visited 
a son of Henry Holt, of Bigge's Main, who 
was ill, and apparently not likely to recover. 
He prayed with him and gave him such ad- 
vice and encouragement as seemed to be re- 
quired. In his prayer he dwelt particularly 
on death ; and then, as if a sudden gleam of 
light had opened upon him, and he had beheld 
heaven immediately over his head, he broke 
away in a transport of joy, repeating — " It is 
down to death, and up to glory ; — down to 
death, and up to glory !" leaving an impres- 
sion, when coupled with his own almost im- 
mediate descent into the pit, and sudden as- 
cension to heaven, that there was something 
prophetic in the employment of such phra- 
seology at that particular time. And what 
renders it more remarkable is, that on leav- 



wall's end miner. 117 

ing the young man, after cheering him for- 
ward, just as he was about to enter " the 
valley of the shadow of death," he is stated 
to have said, — " Go on ; we shall not have 
long to stay ; I may get to heaven perhaps 
before you." 

On his return home he called on another fa- 
mily : and as he rarely left any without prayer, 
he engaged in the exercise here as he had 
done by the couch of the sick, where his 
words had been dropping balm. He was 
generally short, both in his prayers and in 
narrating his religious experience. But on 
this occasion, he prayed fluently, feelingly, 
earnestly, and believingly, for nearly the 
space of an hour. Time and space seemed 
annihilated ; he was taken up to God in spi- 
rit, and placed immediately at the foot of the 
throne of grace, where he felt all the force of 
that brief sentence, which is commensurate 
in its encouragements with the longest prayer 
— *" Ask, and ye shall receive." 

He did not leave home on the Thursday 
morning till about half past eight o'clock ; 
and, what is remarkable, when engaged in 
family prayer with his wife, he gave utter- 
ance to the following lines, offering them 
as a petition on the behalf of himself : — 

" O that without, a lingering groan. 

I may the welcome word receive ; 
My body with my charge lay down, 

And cease at once to work and live ;" 

little aware that both were to be laid down in 



118 wall's end miner. 

the space of six hours. Such things, if they 
do no more, and were even unconnected with 
any thing like heavenly intimations, show a 
certain preparedness of mind for a nobler 
state of existence. 

The hour arrived when he was to be 
" counted with them that go down into the 
pit," and when, on his descent into the bow- 
els of the earth, he was to see the blue hea- 
vens above him, as through a telescope for 
the last time. Then, it was literally with 
him — " Down to death, and up to glory." 

The last time he was seen alive by those 
who left the pit, was some time between ele- 
ven and twelve o'clock in the forenoon pre- 
vious to the accident. He was sitting by the 
side of one of the workings, taking a lunch, 
as a person passed him on his way out of the 
pit. And the. next time he was seen was, on 
the afternoon of the next day, Friday, when 
he was found a corpse. 

THE CATASTROPHE. 

Subjects are contemplated by different men 
in different lights. The dreadful catastrophe 
at Wall's End Colliery, Thursday, June 18th, 
1835, through which 102 human beings lost 
their lives,* and had their doom fixed for ever, 
agreeably to their several characters, will be 
viewed by a philosopher in a purely scientific 
light, who, anxious to ascertain natural 

* See a complete list of the sufferers at the close. 



wall's end miner. 119 

causes, will be equally — and laudably too — 
solicitous to prevent a recurrence of simi- 
lar dreadful effects. But his views are bound- 
ed by the earth on which he s'tands, as his 
object is to prevent the premature extinc- 
tion of mere animal life. The aspects of the 
subject with the Christian are moral and 
religious. He stretches his thoughts through 
the vista of time : they reach the shores of 
eternity ; and there he himself stands in his 
imaginings — imaginings stamped into realities 
by a divine revelation — stands, with an im- 
mortal spirit in his momentary keeping, with 
the ocean before him, flashing with light, or 
veiled in midnight darkness, — an ocean that 
can neither be fathomed nor sounded, and 
which is without a shore. Whatever is 
launched there, floats on for ever — on — and 
on — in misery or felicity. Time, to him, 
assumes the importance of eternity ; religion 
is every thing ; and in contemplating the 
scene, the soul — lost or saved — is never for 
a moment absent from his mind — its final state 
incessantly haunting his thoughts like an ap- 
parition. 

As every thing below ground, and con- 
nected with the colliery, is to be found in a 
report of the depositions taken during the 
coroner's inquest on the case, we shall di- 
rect our attention chiefly to what took place 
above ground. The persons summoned to 
meet on such inquests have to do with the 
world; we have to attend to the church: 



120 wall's end miner, 

they have to look to the body ; we have to 
look to the soul : they have to attend to the 
temper al comforts of the man, by improving 
the state of the pit ; we have to attend to the 
spiritual and eternal interests of those around, 
in order to prevent a plunge into another pit 
— the scorching influence of another fire. 

The writer, who was called upon, with 
others, to improve the melancholy occasion 
by preaching sermons in different places, and 
in each service to make an appeal to the be- 
nevolence of the Christian public, on the be- 
half of a number of bereaved families, some 
of whom had their principal earthly props 
removed from beneath them, stands in the 
relation to the subject of a person in the 
midst of the slain — having witnessed almost 
every scene of writhing agony — -and heard 
almost every form of expression of which 
excessive grief could lay hold, to give 
utterance to its inward workings, and force 
a passage for its relief. The catastrophe 
occurred about two o'clock on the Thursday 
afternoon- — at the moment he was preparing 
a sermon for the dreadful accident which 
took place in Nuns' Field* only about half 

* Just at the moment, too, and only a few hundred paces 
from the place where the writer was sitting, the workmen 
were digging out the dying and the dead, while he was read- 
ing Luke 13th chapter, in his own house ; little aware that 
he should be so soon presented with a practical illustration 
of the 4th and 5th verses, and that he should be called upon, 
in a discourse founded on those verses, to improve the oc- 
casion, in the Wesle3 r an Chapel, Brunswick Place. At the 
close of the sermon, a collection was made, for the widows, 



wall's end miner. 121 

an hour from the same time the preceding 
Thursday ; and not being in the way of hear- 
ing of it till Friday morning, he was prevent- 
ed from visiting the " field of graves" and 
the houses of mourning earlier than the fore- 
noon of that day. He was regular, however, 
in his visits from Newcastle, on Friday, Sa- 
turday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wed- 
nesday, up to which period the body of only 
one remained in the pit, the dangerous state 
of which prevented even filial and parental 
affection from breaking- through to reach 
him. Like a person under the influence of 
strong temptation, with neither the power to 
resist nor yet fit to be there, because of ex- 
cited feeling, he nevertheless availed himself 
of every opportunity of affording solace to 
the distressed ; — visiting the families from 
house to house — speaking to some— praying 
with others — and as often compelled to turn 
aside, in order to regain the utterance that 
had been choked by the sympathetic sob. 
Every process was witnessed from the body 
being stretched in the cart — conveyed home 
— -met by the agonized family at the door — 

orphans, and surviving sufferers, amounting to =£28 15s, 
Id. By this accident, twenty-one persons were injured; — 
ten of whom were taken to the Infirmary — four killed on the 
spot — and three died soon afterwards ; — the remainder were 
taken to their own homes. Four widows and ten orphans 
were left to buffet their way through life. It may be said, 
with regard to the two melanchol}* events, so near to each 
other, and in the same neighbourhood, " God hath spoken 
once ; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto 
God." 



122 wall's end miner, 

laid in the coffin — shrouded — waiting for the 
day of interment — again carried forth — and 
attended by mourners to the house appointed 
for all living. 

There is not on record,* in the same dis- 
trict, a single case in the immense chapter of 
accidents among the colleries in which there 
has been such a loss of human life as in this 
— 105 sufferers in all, and only four brought 
out alive, and these the subjects of serious 
injury. Not an individual, however, was left 
to say how or where the accident commenced. 
Experienced and practical men had to supply 
the lack of necessary information, during the 
inquest, with conjecture, probability, infer- 
ence, and analogy.f All that is positively 

* See a table at the close. 

f It may be observed, that it has been ascertained, in the 
course of exploring the mine since the accident occurred, 
that the explosion did not take place in any part of the work- 
ing districts, nor at a Davy -lamp ; but that it must have hap- 
pened in the gass-pipe drift, from the first S. W. district, in 
the G., or church pit, out of which the pillars were worked 
some years ago. Two men, "William Thompson and Wil- 
liam Johnson, were blasting down the roof-stone to make 
horse-height for a new rolley-way, near to a " stenting," 
which led through the coal barrier wall into the pipe-drift. 
A man door was placed in this stenting, for the convenience 
of the wastemen going into the pipe-drift ; and from the si- 
tuation in which William Thompson's body was found, there 
can scarcely be a doubt that he had either opened this man 
door, and fired the gass in the pipe-drift, or that he had ap- 
proached it so near , that the gas, oozing through the cre- 
vices of the door, had fired at his candle, and, passing along 
the pipe-drift, like a train, exploded the gas in the first S. W. 
district, as already stated. This district has been in a crept 
state for several years, and could not be ventilated ; it has, 
therefore, been standing dead, or charged with gas. John- 



wall's end miner. 123 

known, from occasional visible traces of its 
effects, is, that the destructive element was 
let loose from its confinement — by another, it 
may be, than human hand, and that, like an 
unchained monster — raging through various 
workings — " its breath," in the language 
of Job, " kindling coals, and a flame going 
out of its mouth, "-r-destroyed every thing 
possessed of life in its immediate track — 
first exploding at the shafts contiguous to 
Wail's End Church — then, dividing its 
strength, partly directing its course west- 
ward to the Carville shaft, where a minor ex- 
plosion took place, but chiefly northward, in 
the terror of its power, to another shaft — the 
principal shafts forming a kind of triangle, 
and from three-quarters to upward of half a 
mile distant from each other — exploding a 
third and last time at the northern entrance, — 
the ground shaking the while, agreeably to 
the testimony of persons passing along the 
Shields road at the time. But though its last 
convulsive throes were felt above, and its last 
voice was heard, its work was not finished. It 
returned, so to speak — took another form — 
more silent, but not less certain — suffocating, 
with what is called the " after-damp, 1 ' those 

son -was working in the stow-board, at some distance from 
Thompson, with a Davy-lamp, which he still held in his 
hand when his body was found. His body was not at all 
burnt, while that of Thompson was severely scorched. As 
no fire had been in those divisions of the workings where 
the Davy -lamps were used, it is reasonable to conclude that 
the explosion had not happened from any mismanagement 
of, or accident to, the lamps. 



124 wall's end miner. 

whom the fire had spared — meeting them as 
they were escaping from other workings — 
workings, which, as yet, had been unvisited, 
and in which they had only heard the thun- 
der of its voice ; thus verifying, on a minor 
scale, the general ravages of death, which, in 
the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, was paint- 
ed in the character of a goddess, holding a 
sickle in her hand, with this inscription, 
" Nemini parco" — I spare no man. Scarcely 
any occurrence is capable of affording a more 
striking exemplification of part of Byron's 
description of " The destruction of Senna- 
cherib" than this — omitting the supposition 
of its having been a heavy judgment upon 
the sufferers, and that they were indiscrimi- 
nately the foes of God and his people, as 
were the x\ssyrians : — 

" The angel of death spread his wings on the blast, 

And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd ; 

And the eyes of the sleepers waxM deadly and chill, 

And their breast but once heaved, and for ever grew still !" 

Here, " the angel of death" did but just 
breathe in the face of both man and beast, 
while the blast of his voice, on its way 
upward, told the living relations the tale of 
death's doing below. And O, with the silence 
of that voice, what was the stillness beneath ! 
and what the commotion above ! Fathers 
and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and 
children, in hopeless misery, flying from 
house to house, in open day, thinking of 
nothing but the suffocated, scorched, and 



wall's end mixer. 125 

mangled remains of those who went forth 
in health and strength to labour only a few 
hours before, and who, though then hushed 
in death, upward of one hundred and forty 
fathoms immediately beneath their feet, were 
still living in their affection — affection rein- 
vigorated by the circumstances of the occa- 
sion — and yet without any possibility of 
coming near them for some time, owing to 
the deadly impure state of the pit ! — the 
choke-damp and after-dam/p, as described by 
miners, though differing in character, being 
the same in their effects on human life. 

All this was effected nearly within the 
short space that elapses between a Rash of 
lightning and a peal of thunder. " You see 
yon shaft," said a good man to the writer, 
pointing from the one north, where both 
stood, to the one east of Carville, at which 
the first explosion was heard ; " you see yon 
shaft," said he. On receiving a reply in the 
affirmative, he inquired, "How long, think 
you, was the blast in passing through all the 
workings — going up to the west toward Car- 
ville, exploding there, and coming and ex- 
ploding here ?" Not being aware of the 
distance underground, a negative reply was 
the only one that could be made. The nar- 
rator deeply affected with what it had cost 
him during its brief but destructive progress 
— having lost three sons by it, added, " Only 
two minutes and a half!" Another friend, 
however, who had more experience in these 



126 wall's end miner. 

things, and had been connected with the pit 
between twenty and thirty years, stated the 
time occupied to have been little more than a 
minute — having travelled about two thousand 
yards, or one mile and a quarter. What a 
minute ! both in itself — as to the vastness of 
the work executed, and to the persons con- 
cerned — in fixing their final state ! If the 
whole circumference of the earth be but a 
point of the universe ; and if all the time that 
has been, or ever shall be, may be comprised 
in one single instant of eternity, well may we 
exclaim in the language of the psalmist, 
" What is man f" He is, in person, a mere 
point of this circumference ; and his life is 
out a moment of that eternity. But on that 
moment all is suspended — heaven with all 
its glories — hell with all its terrors ! The 
beginning, the middle, the end of that mo- 
ment, is important to man ; but especially the 
latter, when unapprized of its arrival, — for 
there, time closes, and eternity begins, or 
more properly opens. A minute ! to last for 
ever in its effects ! 

Another man, who was standing near the 
shaft where the first explosion was heard, and 
waiting with others on the Saturday for in- 
telligence from those who had gone down, 
through pure affection, to combat death in 
his own domains, was interrogated by the 
writer on different points, when he said — " I 
was working here when she first blasted. The 
first thing I heard was a rush of air, accom- 



wall's end :.iiner. 127 

parried by a cloud of dust, in the midst of 
which was a piece of cloth or something, 
which I took to be some of the men's clothes, 
and which was carried away in the air. On 
seeing and hearing this, I knew what was to 
follow ; and she went off directly." David 
had seen nothing like this, when he said, 
" There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, 
and fire out of his mouth devoured : coals 
were kindled by it — thick clouds passed — 
and coals of fire." But the royal bard had 
heard' of God's terrible doings ; he described 
him as manifested in his works ; and here too 
— if the earth is his, and providence is still in 
operation — we are bound to acknowledge his 
hand : as much so, indeed, as when Habak- 
kuk said, " Before him went the pestilence, 
and burning coals went forth at his feet." O, 
yes, God was in the " blast!" 

Destructive, however, as was the blast, the 
stroke was tempered with mercy. Two men, 
who were employed at the furnace at the bot- 
tom of the shafts adjoining Carville, were 
saved. These are termed two upcast shafts. 
As soon as the men found that the pit had 
fired, they immediately threaded their way 
through the least dangerous workings to the 
northern shaft, which is a doicncast, and 
which experience taught them was the best 
course to pursue. Speaking to one of them 
on the subject of his escape, he said, " It is 
marvellous how ever we got out. I was 
scarcely sensible for some time, and ex- 



128 wall's end miner. 

tremely weak. The air was so bad, that I 
was almost gone ; but I struggled hard. It 
is all mercy ; for if God had not helped, 
there would have been no possibility of 
escaping with life." The other person who 
was preserved, and snatched as a brand from 
the burning, was Thomas Kennedy, who for 
the first time himself attended class with 
Crister, on the first night of the latter meet- 
ing in one, as noticed in a previous page ; 
and was thus closely connected with the 
stroke that deprived him of natural life, as 
he had taken the first step with him in the 
beginning of a religious existence. So true 
is it, in a thousand cases besides the one men- 
tioned by our Saviour, and where there is 
very often almost equal danger, " the one 
shall be taken, and the other left." 

A very remarkable case of providential in- 
terference was, the preservation of John 
Reed, rolley-wayman, Robert Moralee, door- 
keeper, aged 70, John Brown, onsetter at 
the shaft, and Martin Middleton, a boy about 
fourteen years of age. One of these was a 
member of Mr. Reay's class. All were more 
or less burnt ; but John Reed had a leg bro- 
ken ; and to add to the poignancy of his 
feelings, he lost two sons by the accident. 
But of these farther notice will be taken. 

One youth was lost, of the name of Ap- 
pleby, who w r ent to work for another, to allow 
him to go to Newcastle races, which were 
then being held. The survivor saved his own 



wall's end miner. 129 

life at the immense cost of that of another. 
Here was occasion both for gratitude and re- 
pentance. It was a mysterious providence 
that permitted the comparatively innocent to 
be punished in the place of the guilty ; but 
God the Father did no more here than he 
countenanced in the death of his own Son ; 
and as he effected our salvation by that 
measure, he might, in a way unknown to us, 
turn to a good account the youth's disaster 
in the pit, while the more criminal of the two 
— and therefore the least fit for a sudden re- 
moval, was indulged with a longer space for 
repentance. The stipulated wages for Ap- 
pleby's service was one shilling ; that shilling 
cost him his life. 

But the most marked providence was visi- 
ble in the timing of the general stroke. Had 
the accident occurred a little earlier on the 
same day, both old and young would have 
been swept out of existence — scarcely any of 
the underground workmen would have been 
left about the colliery — and the houses would 
have been filled with only widows and orphans. 
Most of the married men had reached the day 
— some half an hour, two hours, or more, 
before the desolating element was let loose 
upon human life. The divine Being, severe 
as was the stroke, mercifully drew the line 
across the multitude of moving beings just at 
the time and toward the place when and 
where — in a mighty sweep, the separation 
would be the least afflictive in its consequences 
9 



130 wall's end miner, 

to the living. In Mr. Reay's class, most of 
the boys and young men were taken — taken 
like so many lambs prepared for the slaughter 
— removed, however, more suddenly than 
even these — and exchanging literally, in the 
language of Crister, who suffered with them — 
language which, in his rapt moments he was 
wont to employ — " exchanging the pit cap 
for a crown of glory !" 

Speaking to one of the men who left work 
before the pit exploded, he said he had been 
only two hours out when the accident took 
place. " You were within two hours then," 
returned the writer, " of eternity." The 
man seemed impressed with a sense of the 
divine goodness, and was grateful for his 
escape. With many of the people the catas- 
trophe was turned to a profitable account. 
" It is a loud call," said a woman who had a 
son taken away by the stroke : adding, " yes, 
yes — it is a loud call indeed." Going into 
another house, and on the question being 
proposed, — " Have you sustained any loss by 
the accident?" a female replied, who was 
pensively seated alone, " No, — there are none 
gone out of this house, of our oion ; but," 
she added, " we have friends taken away by 
the stroke : it has scarcely missed a house !" 
It gave a person familiar with Scripture an 
idea of the distress of the Egyptians when 
their first-born were taken away from before 
their eyes ; and the writer felt in his visits on 
the Monday, as if he scented death in every 



wall's end miner. 131 

direction, — being reminded of that sacredly 
poetical allusion to one of the noblest, but 
irrational portions of God's creation, in a 
case in which the dead and the dying strew 
the ground — " he smelleth the battle afar off." 
So general was the calamity, that though a 
house might be missed here and there, over 
which the destroying angel passed, without 
having visited the inmates with actual loss ; 
yet so numerous were the connecting links 
of relationship, that one house of mourning 
was added to another, with very few spaces 
between ; and even persons exempt from it 
partook of the general gloom which was 
thrown over the neighbourhood, like one 
vast pall, where every feeling, except that 
of heart-rending grief, was dead within the 
people. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Catastrophe continued — Pleasing indications of a 
preparation for another world in some of the juvenile suf- 
ferers — The Scriptures — Prayer preferred to necessary 
food — Sunday school teachers' festival, and its painful as- 
sociations — Extorted confessions, and knowledge of charac- 
ter — Exemplification of Christian fortitude and resignation 
in the bereaved — Unruffled repose — Agony blended with 
tenderness — Painful disappointment — The mother and the 
Christian — Agonizing reflections — Sources of consolation — 
Circumstances heightening the distress consequent on the 
loss of life, in the widow and the fatherless — Despair — Con- 
sequences of the disfigured state of some of the bodies. 

As religion had her triumphs in some of 
the bereaved parents and friends after the 



132 wall's end miner. 

event, so she had made her glorious entrance, 
and taken up her abode in the bosoms of se- 
veral of the actual sufferers before it took 
place. Eleven members of the Wesleyan 
Society were killed, nine of whom belonged 
to Mr. Reay's class, of Carville. Of two 
families those of William Mason and John 
Bell, much might be said on the subject of 
suffering ; eight persons were swept away 
by the calamity — -four out of each. Two out 
of the four, belonging to BelVs family, met 
in the class just named. One of these read the 
thirteenth chapter of Genesis the night before 
his death, repeatedly calling the attention of 
his mother to different portions of it, which 
seemed to impress his heart, saying, with filial 
affection, " Do you hear that, mother? Is not 
that good ?" The Bible was his daily com- 
panion ; and the voice of God, in his own 
word, was one of the last voices that fell on 
the mother's ear the night before the event, 
through the medium of her son, — little aware 
that she was so soon to hear the voice of the 
same Being in providence, speaking of that 
son's death, through whom she had heard the 
word of life, and who was so anxious to pro- 
mote her immortal interests by reading to her 
its sacred contents. Few things are more 
calculated to embalm the memory of a child 
than this — as a last act to a tender mother. 

A still more touching case, however, occur- 
red in the history of a boy who was one of the 
principal supports of his widowed mother, and 



wall's end miner. 133 

of whose conversion notice has been already- 
taken. He was also a member of Mr. Reay's 
class, and when he is stated to have been the 
companion of Crister, the name of " the lit- 
tle old man" will be immediately recollected. 
Thomas Ellerton had to rise early on the 
morning of the day on which he exchanged 
worlds. Being rather straitened for time, and 
anxious to be at the pit at the stated period, 
a dispute arose between breakfast and family 
prayer — the wants of the body and the wants 
of the soul — which of the two should break 
its fast. If breakfast were to be taken, there 
would be no time for family prayer ; and if 
family prayer were performed, there would 
be no time for breakfast. The breakfast was 
abandoned, and he knelt, like a little Samuel 
— being, as before stated, only thirteen years 
of age — before the family altar, where he im- 
plored the divine blessing upon himself and 
upon his widowed mother, cheerfully forego- 
ing a regular meal, rather than that the soul 
should not break its fast at a throne of grace. 
When the writer called upon the bereaved 
mother on the Monday, and to look at the 
corpse of her child as he lay in the coffin, 
" black, but comely" — for there was great 
placidity about the small regular-featured 
countenance, he found that the first flood- 
tides of grief had partially subsided. But on 
her opening a drawer, the sluices were again 
in action. Anxious to cherish the least re- 
collection of piety and church-membership, 



134 wall's end miner. 

she took out a pretty little box, in which he 
had deposited his society tickets ; which 
were to her more precious than rubies, and 
on which she fixed her eyes as long as she 
could see through her tears. These were 
pleasing mementoes of his having belonged 
to the church on earth, of which the church 
in heaven constitutes but a part, — like two 
apartments in the same building — the one the 
ground-floor, and the other the "upper room" 
in the New Jerusalem. In that "upper room" 
his friend Crister and he would appear about 
the same moment of time, as they had receiv- 
ed their tickets at the same period, in the 
same class, and from the same hand, on the 
Tuesday evening ; — appear like the aged 
Paul and the youthful Timothy — united on 
earth, and reunited in heaven. And what, 
to the writer, formed an interesting little in- 
cident, was, that he had the happiness to see 
the widowed mother, who was then not a 
member of religious society, and for whose 
conversion to God her orphan boy had often 
prayed, occupying his seat in the class in 
which he met, the first time of its meeting 
after the accident. 

Many of the boys, and several of those of 
riper years, who lost their lives on the Thurs- 
day, had been looking forward with joy to the 
Saturday some days before. The latter of 
these was the day which was fixed for the 
Sunday scholars, the teachers, and several 
friends, to take tea together. Cakes, and 



wall's end miner. 135 

other necessaries were ordered, for about 
four hundred persons, and tea was to be serv- 
ed in a field adjoining the house of Mr. Reay, 
who, together with Mrs. Reay, had the prin- 
cipal management of the festive preparations. 
The writer had agreed to go down from New- 
castle to Carville, to share in the joys of the 
occasion, and to deliver an address to the 
teachers. Alas, the horizon was soon over- 
cast; and that which was a sunny landscape 
in the distance, assumed the form of a deso- 
late wilderness. Mr. Nichol, who had begun 
to complete the order for the cakes, before 
any countermand could arrive, sent a consi- 
derable number of them from Newcastle ; 
and the very cakes intended for the living 
children on the Saturday — to the no small 
joy of the parents, were eaten by those very 
parents, and others, on the Sunday, while 
the bodies of those for whom they were 
originally destined lay coffined for the tomb 
in their presence ; eaten, indeed — but with 
tears, and as with " bitter herbs" before the 
Lord — the religious gala being turned into 
a scene of "lamentation and wo."* 

* When some of the hewers were leaving the pit, about 
two or three hours before the explosion, one of them was ac- 
costed by Robert Combey, in a tone of triumphant anticipa- 
tion with—" O what a day we shall have on Saturday !" 
He had his enjoyment ; but it was the light of that day, 
which " never more shall close," and whictf broke upon him 
soon after he had uttered the sentence. This young man 
was awakened under the ministry of the Rev. Robert Ait- 
kin, while preaching in the New Road Chapel, Newcastle, 
October 1834 ; a man who, under God, moved about at the 



136 wall's end miner. 

The knowledge and influence of character, 
both with regard to the religious and irreli- 
gious, was remarkable on the occasion, and 
shows not only the deep conviction of the 
necessity of personal piety which rests upon 
the human mind, but the preference given to 
those who possess it. Crowds of persons 
were generally near the shafts, or in their 
neighbourhood ; and on the bodies being 
brought from the pit, the pressure was some- 
times considerable. Immediately on the 
names being announced, the buz went around, 
— " He was a gambler — he was a drunkard," 
&,c. On the reverse, as in the case of the 
Bell's, it was agreeably echoed and re-echo- 
ed, — "Aye, he was a good lad that !" Thus, 
character was not only known, but its value 
was felt and acknowledged ; and seemed to 
regulate the hopes and fears of the by-stand- 
ers, in whose minds there was evidently a 
connection at the moment between the past 
and the future — the by-gone life and ever- 
lasting destiny of the dead. God has a moni- 
tor within ; and Christian light, in a neigh- 
bourhood where the gospel is preached, is too 
diffusive in its character, not to enable men 

time like a ministerial earthquake. And although it was 
difficult sometimes— to change the metaphor— to hear the 
cries of the wounded for the roar of the cannon ; yet the 
slain of the Lord were to be found after many days ; and 
these remained when the noise had passed off with the dis 
charge of the artillery. And is permanent good to be sacri- 
ficed, to avoid a little temporary agitation, which, at most, 
can only offend the ear of those in whose souls even the 
melodies of religion have often no place ? 



wall's end miner. 137 

on those occasions to " discern between the 
righteous and the wicked ; between him 
that serveth God, and him that serveth him 
not." It assumes somewhat the character of 
a " last day" when persons do not only in- 
advertently sit in judgment upon others, but 
positively and experimentally pronounce 
upon themselves. 

It was impossible for any one either ca- 
pable of feeling or at all disposed to reflect, 
to look upon the scene or listen to the be- 
reaved, without reaping instruction. Religion 
and human character unfolded themselves fre- 
quently in forms the most interesting ; and 
not a few were the triumphs of the former. 
An excellent man, a member of the Wesleyan 
society, had a boy among the sufferers. The 
writer saw him on the Saturday at the shaft 
where the first explosion was heard : but had 
visited his residence the day before, in com- 
pany with Mrs. Reay — who, like an angel of 
mercy, flew from family to family, to pour 
consolation into the newly-opened wound. 
While fathers, sons, and brothers were re- 
lieving each other in clearing away the 
timbers which had been shook out of their 
places, and choked up part of the shaft, the 
good man referred to waited among others 
to take his turn in the perilous work. A 
finer picture of a Christian philosopher 
could scarcely be presented to the eye in 
humble life, than was here exhibited. He 
stood, or moved from place to place, as oc- 



138 wall's end miner. 

casion required, costumed in his coarse, white 
flannel-jacket, and pit trousers, — calm, recol- 
lected, resigned, uncomplaining, and yet evi- 
dently the subject of deep feeling. For every 
one that spoke to him he had an answer of 
meekness ; and yet a word for no one unne- 
cessarily, or who did not interrupt the silence 
that reigned. Like his pattern, who was as 
" a lamb before his shearers — so opened he 
not his mouth." He seemed to have reached 
the bottom of the cup of which the psalmist 
drank so deepty, when he said, " I was dumb 
with silence : I held my peace, even from 
good ; and my sorrow was stirred. I opened 
not my mouth because thou didst it." The 
" sorrow" that " was stirred" in the bosom, 
was never once rendered visible to the eye by 
the contortions of the face ; and the pro- 
foundest " silence" was maintained on every 
subject of complaint. The stream was in 
motion, but it was deep and unruffled : and 
as noiseless as the waters of Siloa, which are 
characterized by the prophet as flowing 
" softly." Not a thought appeared to flit 
across the silent deep within, beyond — "The 
Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away ; bless- 
ed be the name of the Lord !" To some, his 
undisturbed movements — for, in the language 
of poetry — 

* In his very motion there was rest,* 

might have been construed into a kind of 
stoical apathy, or philosophical indifference ; 



wall's end miner, 139 

but this could only be the case with the few, 
and these — extremely hasty and superficial 
in their observations. He was ready for 
every purpose for which his aid was required 
— never hurried in his step — never wanting — 
the agitations of the occasion never disturbing 
his equanimity of soul — and yet, never called 
away in thought apparently, for a single mo- 
ment, from his beloved child and the associ- 
ate solemnities. There was in the midst of 
all a certain inflexibility of muscle about the 
face, where gravity sat blended with meek- 
ness and resignation; and if moved at all, 
only disposed to settle down to greater depths, 
— ready for continued and increased exercise. 
Thus he hovered around the fatal spot, un- 
noticing any one till noticed, — the hand of 
God sustaining him, — -and ready to descend 
into what had recently become the region of 
the dead, on the first summons. The class in 
which his name was enrolled, met in the 
evening of July second, the day fortnight 
following the accident. It was the first time 
of its meeting after the solemn event ; and 
the writer had agreed with Mr. Reay to con- 
duct the service, in order to relieve his feel- 
ings as the regular leader. This good man 
was there, with his eyes lifted upward, as 
though they would pierce the ceiling on their 
way to the skies — heaven beaming in his 
countenance — hallelujah on his lips — and the 
love of God in his heart. There were me- 
lancholy feelings in the meeting ; but not a 



140 wall's end miner. 

murmur ; though several were present who 
had sustained severe losses, and several ab- 
sent, whose seats, and sayings, and charac- 
ters, were touchingly alluded to, but — num- 
bered at that moment with the blest. 

Very different were the feelings and views 
of another good man — a member also of the 
Wesley an society, and one who had laboured 
to bring up his children in the fear of God. 
He had three sons lost by the accident. Deep 
gloom settled on the face like a cloud; he 
was occasionally relieved by a deep sigh 
and a flood of tears ; and anon he would 
look at the severe side — advert to second 
causes — and try to reason himself into the 
propriety of certain precautionary measures 
which, if employed, would have prevented 
the whole. The mind was brooding upon 
the past, instead of improving the present ; 
and an aptitude was perceived and indulged 
for repelling all approach with consolation 
by any one, except by such persons as met 
his own views, and from that which was 
the result of his own reasonings. And yet, 
though unwilling to receive comfort himself, 
he was tender over the sufferings of his af- 
flicted wife. One of his sons was so much 
disfigured by the action of the fire, that 
there was no possibility of recognising him 
by his features. " I only knew him," said 
he, whispering to a friend who sat by, and 
from whom he would receive no consolation 
for himself, and yet afraid lest his partner's 



wall's end miner. 141 

ear should catch the sound of his voice ; — " I 
only knew him," said he, " by one of the 
shoes which he had on his feet having some 
marks by which I distinguished to whom it 
belonged ; but," continued he, " I durst not 
tell his mother that;" then, in a burst of 
agonized feeling again, he added, " that is 
nothing ; I could bear, all that, and more, if I 
had only an assurance of their happiness." 
Here the big tears, gushing from their foun- 
tains, rolled down his cheeks. Religion was 
operating in both cases, with regard to these 
two excellent men ; but it had different sub- 
jects to deal with, as different burthens were 
to be borne : still there was a depth of tender 
feeling in the latter, who could drink in such 
copious draughts of grief, and keep it pent 
within himself — afraid lest the partner of his 
bosom should obtain one drop more than that 
which had been unavoidably measured out to 
her in the course of Providence. His loss 
was three times greater than that of the for- 
mer ; and considering its extent, the marvel 
is, that he should have borne it so ably, and 
that he should have such presence of mind, 
and such a surplus stock of sympathetic feel- 
ing to let out on the occasion for others. He 
had four children taken from him previously 
to this stroke, and now had but one son left. 
Ordinary grace could never have sustained 
him. He still stood, however, though bent 
by the tempest, like the firmly-rooted oak on 
the plain, spreading its branches to heaven ; 



142 wall's end miner. 

" troubled on every side — cast down, but 
not destroyed ;" and was afterward found 
among the foremost, praying with persons 
in distress, in Brunswick Place Chapel, 
Newcastle, on a visit of Mr. Aitkin to the 
place, bearing a lively recollection of the 
important change effected by his ministry 
upon his son Robert, about nine months be- 
fore, for whose loss he yet mourned as a 
father, but in whose happiness he rejoiced as 
a Christian. 

To return to the first of these two Chris- 
tian men : one circumstance was extremely 
painful, especially to the companion of his 
life. His wife felt like a mother ; and mo- 
thers only can comprehend what mothers feel. 
About two hours and a half after the writer 
had left the mouth of the pit on the Saturday 
night, which would be between ten and eleven 
o'clock, a report got circulated that the boy 
was living; the tidings were instantly con- 
veyed to the mother, who had been passing 
through the fire and through the waters for 
the space of two days and a half; and every 
thing seemed to betoken — " This my son was 
dead, and is alive again ; he was lost and is 
found." There was a boy marvellously pre- 
served as already noticed ; but alas, — though 
good news to another, he did not belong to 
her ! And at the moment she was preparing 
coffee for her own, which, to a mother, must 
have been a pleasing employment, he was 
brought a corpse to the door in a cart. How 



wall's end miner. 143 

the mistake had originated, it is not necessary 
to state ; but it added to the misery of the mo- 
ther, to whom it was like a second death — 
placing the cup, as it were, to the lip, only 
for the purpose of dashing its sweets untasted 
to the ground — or elevating to an unusual 
height for the purpose of rendering more ter- 
rible the fall. 

An excellent companion picture to the 
Christian philosopher, of whom a slight sketch 
has just been given, was a good woman, who 
was deprived of two sons. One of the young 
men had just been brought home on the 
Monday afternoon, when the writer entered 
thehouse,and then lay in the coffin. The body 
was black, and much burnt. Several females, 
relatives and others, were in the separate 
rooms. The mother was also there, but would 
have been unknown, as such, to a stranger. 
All were either in deep distress, or much con- 
cerned, except herself. There was the same 
serenity, as was evinced by the father of the 
boy reported to be alive, but taken home the 
subject of death. In addition, however, to 
the breathless calm which seemed to pervade 
her breast, there was a certain dignified 
bearing in her port, of which he was not the 
master, denoting the majesty, as well as the 
meekness of Christianity. There was no ap- 
parent want of maternarfeeling ; but her own 
character, duty, and privileges as a child of 
her Father in heaven, seemed to possess her 
so fully, that all other relationships were mi- 



144 wall's end miner. 

nor, and regulated by superior considerations; 
"_0," said she to a friend, who knew her well, 
and what value to place upon her testimony, 
44 1 am sometimes almost ashamed of myself, 
that I cannot weep, and show more of the 
mother to those who are weeping around me ; 
but God supports me so mercifully in this 
hour of trial, that I am borne above it," She 
seemed like Fortitude personified ; — the mo- 
ther and yet the Christian ! the weaker vessel 
made strong through divine grace! solemn, 
but triumphant — like a martyr in the fire ! 

Opposed to this was another good woman, 
a widow, who had lost her husband by a 
former blast, and a son by the present. " My 
bairn," s&\d she, full of tossing agony, "wasno 
gambler, no fighter, no drunkard ; he always 
came home sober ; and if he only found his 
mother well, all was well : but, for all that, he 
was not converted to God ! O, his poor soul ! 
where is it ? I should be content to know 
that he is happy." All consolation was re- 
jected here also, as in the case of the good 
man to whom reference has just been made. 
Religion will not be satisfied with anything 
short of itself ; and like a person receiving the 
power of vision, the Christian perceives dan- 
gers of which he was once insensible, becom- 
ing by his enlightenment not only more quick- 
sighted, but more alive to the perils of others. 

While some refused to be comforted for 
their children, like Rachel, because they were 
not, there were others with less personal 



wall's end miner. 145 

piety, and with equally little ground of hope, 
who endeavoured to extract honey from every 
flower. — " My child," said one, " was a good 
child. He never found fault with his mother. 
If he only had bread and water, he was always 
satisfied with it." These are pleasing reflec- 
tions ; but still they do not constitute the 
basis upon which we are to found our hopes 
of heaven. 

On going through the different families, 
sorrow was depicted in every countenance, 
and the circumstances in which a few were 
placed, were truly deplorable. A tall old 
woman sat in a house spare of furniture, and 
otherwise distinguished for deep poverty. 
"I lost my husband," said she, "by a pit- 
accident, some time back ; and now I have 
lost two sons, one of whom has left a widow 
with three small children, herself having been 
confined only nine days on the day of his death." 
Proceeding a few doors further along the row, 
the daughter-in-law, — only the twelfth day of 
her confinement, was found seated in a chair 
by the side of the fire, suckling her infant, 
with nothing but bitter reflections in the rear, 
and blighted prospects before her. 

Fathers and brothers evinced a fearlessness 
of danger very often, while trying to force 
their way to the dead ; hazarding life to reach 
death ; and the corpse permitted, after obtain- 
ed, to remain only a few hours above ground, 
— each saying in effect, " Give me a burying- 
place, that I may burv my dead out of my 
10" 



146 



WALL S END MINER. 



sight."— One remarked, "I bore it very well, 
till I came to my own son, and took him up 
in my arms to carry him away. There 
were fourteen lying in the same place ; he 
was much burnt; but I could have kenned 
him by his make, if I had not seen a feature of 
his face." A woman who had been deprived 
of two sons, and had secured the corpse of 
one of them, observed on the Monday morn- 
ing, "Had any one told me last Thursday 
forenoon, that I should have to pass through 
what I have experienced, I could not have 
thought it possible for any one to have borne 
it. I have received one ; but I want the 
other: O, yes, I want the bones of my child." 
With some — 

" Hope, like the glimm'ring taper's light, 

Adorns and cheers their way : 
And still, as darker grows the night, 

Emits a brighter ray :" 

But here, alas, hope was deprived of its last 
ray ; — all was bare ; — it amounted, in all its 
impenetrable gloom, only to " the bones of 
my child," for more than these, the circum- 
stances of the case would not allow her to 
perceive in the dim, or rather dark distance. 

But even when the daring searchers had 
discovered the bodies, it was, as will be seen, 
in more instances than one, difficult to iden- 
tify to whom they belonged — some of them 
having been claimed, not because of what 
they were of themselves, but because of what 
they had on — by the veriest trifle in dress. 



wall's end miner. 147 

A very affecting example of this kind occur- 
red on the Sabbath following the accident. 
An anxious father, waiting with others, at the 
mouth of the pit, for the body of his son, mis- 
took, on examining the disfigured remains of 
those that were brought up, the corpse of 
another for the one for which he was seek- 
ing, in consequence of some article of cloth- 
ing in which a slight similarity existed. 
The corpse was borne home, the convulsed 
feelings of a father and mother were seen in 
operation by its side, showers of tears were 
shed over it, and all the attentions were paid 
to it which sorrow delights — if such an ex- 
pression as delight be admissible on such an 
occasion — to observe to one who had been en- 
folded in the warmest and inmost affections 
of the human soul. A short period, how- 
ever, before interment, an additional shock 
was given to parental feeling, by the dis- 
covery, that the body over which the af- 
flicted father and mother had poured forth 
their bitter waitings was the property of 
others, — others who were anxiously looking 
and longing for their own, and were only 
waiting for the opportunity of giving vent to 
similar bursts of affectionate grief, while the 
body of their own child, which had come up 
at the same moment, was lying in a coffin in 
the neighbourhood of the shaft unclaimed, in 
which situation it had remained from eleven 
o'clock on Saturday night till two o'clock on 
the Sunday afternoon— during which, it lay 



148 wall's end mixer. 

in one sense unwept, and at a time when the 
tears, bedewing his substitute, would have been 
envied — if known by those to whom that 
substitute belonged — themselves unaware in 
the interim that their's had come to the light. 
This was one of those cases which the wis- 
dom of a Solomon could not have reached by 
any experiment on parental affection, and 
which the guiding hand of a kind Providence 
at length pointed out and explained, for the 
mournful satisfaction of the separate families. 
Even among the less disfigured, the lamenta- 
tion of Jeremiah might have been adopted 
in reference to many of them — " Their visage 
is blacker than a coal ; they are not known 
in the streets." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Brief extracts from a journal of events — Preparations 
for descent — Discoveries — Four persons found alive — Their 
state — Funeral ceremonies — A general visitation — Charac- 
ter of eight young men and boys — Sudden glory — Respect 
paid to Crister — Position in which he was found — Thomas 
Reavely — Joseph Lawson — A Christian Sabbath and its 
duties — Concern for the young — Use of the whole. 

JOURNAL. 

A few extracts from a journal of events 
kept by the writer, affording a brief view of 
the daily progress of discovery, after the mis- 
cellaneous remarks which have preceded on 
the general catastrophe, will show not only 



wall's end mixer. 149 

the difficulties with which the searchers had 
to contend, but the suspense in which the 
different afflicted families were held. 

Thursday, July 18th. — Most of the married 
men, as will have been perceived, had reached 
the day in safety ; and narrow was the escape 
of many of both the more matured and the 
young. The explosion took place about two 
o'clock in the afternoon : and the brother of 
" Little Tom," so called, who suffered, had 
only been up about five minutes when the pit 
exploded. On being informed of the fact, he 
could scarcely give credit to it. Omitting 
some of the earlier preparations for descend- 
ing, it may be remarked, that no time was 
lost. The scene was one of deep and melan- 
choly interest. In a shed near the G pit 
were several females, waiting in silent de- 
spair the result of those exertions about to be 
made to recover their relatives, and near 
them were a number of coffins. In another 
shed, still nearer the pit, a man was engaged 
in trimming, cleaning, locking, and lighting 
Davy lamps, to give light and security to the 
pitmen about to explore the mine. With 
these adventurous men, the shed and the space 
around the pit were crowded. The rain de- 
scended in torrents, but they heeded it not. 
All being in readiness, four men took their 
Davy lamps, and got into the corf. The sig- 
nal was given, the machinery set in motion, 
and instantly they were out of sight. The 
operation was repeated until about twenty- 



150 wall's end miner. 

eight men had descended. There was no 
hesitation with any of them ; the competition 
rather seemed to be, which should go down 
first. All was, however, conducted in silence, 
except the hoarse voice of the banksman giv- 
ing the necessary signals. No bodies found. 

Friday IQth. — In the course of this day, 
several of the men and boys were found, and 
by four o'clock in the afternoon, William 
Crister was brought up, whose lifeless form 
was presented to his family and friends. He 
was found in the workings between Carville 
and Wall's End Church, just a little to the 
west of the Shields road, beneath one of the 
adjoining fields. The person who first dis- 
covered him, knew him by looking at his 
back, as he lay on the ground, with seven or 
eight persons lying beside him. Mr. Mann, 
who had given him his society ticket on the 
Tuesday evening, was at the shaft at the time 
he was brought"up, and the writer followed 
almost immediately. Whenever a body was 
brought to bank, there was a rush of specta- 
tors to the pit mouth. The females eagerly 
joined the throng, but instantly retired with- 
out a word, on perceiving that the body was 
one to which they had no claim. Twenty- 
one bodies were found in the course of the 
day. 

Saturday, 20th.— It was not till the after- 
noon of this day that the writer visited the 
widow of poor Crister. He lay in his coffin. 
There was a slight graze below one eye, oc- 



wall's end miner. 151 

casioned probably by the fall ; and a slight 
purple was stealing over the face, the fea- 
tures of which expressed a perfect calm. 

The writer was at the shaft next the church, 
in company with Mr. Leppington and Mr. 
Reay, till between eight and nine o'clock in 
the evening. But it was not till between ten 
and eleven that the tidings reached the top 
that four persons were found alive. Late as 
was the hour, crowds of persons were upon 
the ground, it being the shaft which first 
exploded, and the one which had been par- 
tially choked with timber. When the people 
heard of the living below, the dead — numerous 
as they were, and painful as were the circum- 
stances — appeared to be forgotten ; they 
jumped, they sang, they shouted, and were 
in a perfect delirium of joy. On the first two 
being brought to the bank — the boy and 
Reed — the crowd broke in, at the peril of be- 
ing precipitated down the shaft, as well as 
injuring the exhausted sufferers, and carried 
them some distance in the large wicker bas- 
ket, in which the coals are brought to the 
day. The basket, with its iron trapping — 
more fit for a cart and horse, than the per- 
sons that could conveniently attach them- 
selves to it, was borne off with the apparent 
ease of a piece of plaited straw. Joy of 
heart seemed to string every nerve. Even 
the sufferings of the four persons — when all 
safely brought up— were partially lost, in the 
exultations over the remaining spark of life, 



152 wall's end miner. 

which the spectators hoped would soon be 
briskened into joyous animation, by the same 
Providence that had preserved them, and 
now seemed to accost them in the emphatic 
language of Zechariah, " I have sent forth 
thy prisoners out of the pit." 

Though the persons thus rescued from 
destruction were the subjects of occasional 
delirium, their broken tale, as far as it could 
be collected, was one of deep interest. They 
had gone down the pit, on the morning of 
Thursday, about five o'clock, and had thus 
been under ground, at a depth of one hundred 
and forty-five fathoms, for sixty-five hours — 
and as the explosion took place at two in the 
afternoon of Thursday, they had been lite- 
rally entombed alive for fifty-six hours of the 
above period. Two of them, when taken 
out, were delirious, and gave incoherent and 
improbable accounts of what had transpired; 
another had his leg so fractured as to ren- 
der immediate amputation indispensable ; the 
fourth had his hands and face scorched, but 
was perfectly sensible. 

John Brown, the most intelligent of the 
survivors, was at the bottom of the shaft 
of the G or Church Pit when the accident 
took place. He was what was called an 
" onsetter," his duty being to fix the hook 
at the end of the rope upon the corves of coals 
previous to their being drawn up from the 
mine. He stated, that he was in the act of 
performing his duty, when the pit — what he 



wall's end miner. 153 

called — " fired." He had not the slightest 
apprehension of danger, and he stated that he 
had no fear of working in the mine. The 
blast which came through the pit knocked 
him down, and he fell with his side upon the 
tram or rolley, used for bringing the corves 
of coals. Near him was the little boy named 
Martin Middleton, and at a short distance the 
other two men. How long he lay insensible 
he was not able to conjecture ; but when he 
recovered sufficiently to reflect, he knew that 
a " blast" had occurred in the pit. The 
lights were, of course, " extinguished" by 
the foal air, and on groping about, the 
first thing he discovered was, that the horse, 
within a few yards of him, had been killed, 
either by the blast of fire or the after-damp. 
He eventually discovered the boy and the 
other two men. He got some water and 
refreshed himself and them. One of the 
men was already delirious ; he talked of his 
wife and his home, and insisted upon stripping 
his clothes off, under an impression that he 
was going to bed. In that state he lay upon 
the floor of the mine ; and the poor sufferers 
continued in this state of living death until 
the rnppy hour of deliverance. The indi- 
viduals thus miraculously preserved did not 
appear to have suffered from hunger. Brown 
thought it might be some time about the mid- 
dle of Friday when he became a little recol- 
lected, and concluded at first, that it must 
have been a long and a dark night through 



154 wall's end miner. 

which he had passed, since he first fell 
asleep. J. Reed was in the cabin, and it was 
Brown's opinion that he must have been dri- 
ven against the side of it, to occasion the 
fracture. 

When the boy was discovered, he was in 
a state of nudity. He told his father, that he 
felt himself so hot after he had got burned, 
that he threw his clothes off, in order to cool 
himself. He was heard at the distance of 
twenty yards singing hymns ; a circumstance 
which, in those doleful regions, and at that 
particular moment, must have produced 
strange emotions in those who heard him. 
He had been a Sunday scholar at Carville, 
and had been exceedingly refractory. But 
his songs and his instructions came to his aid, 
to cheer him in the time of need ; and he told 
J. Green soon after he was found, that he 
would be a good boy in future, and that his 
his father should never have occasion to flog 
him again for not going to school. The hymn 
he was singing when he was found was — 
" W hen I was a stranger, Jesus took me in," 
&c, &c. Forty-four bodies found to-day. 

Sunday, 21s*. — This morning poor John 
Reed had to undergo the amputation of his 
broken limb. Among other bodies disco- 
vered, that of Wm. Crister, jum, was one; 
and the father remained uninterred till the 
afternoon of this day, that both might be 
laid in the same tomb. The excitement which 
existed in the neighbourhood of the mine 



wall's end miner. 155 

cannot easily be described. In the afternoon, 
when the writer visited the place, in com- 
pany with Mr. R. Wilson, of Newcastle, 
the whole face of that part of the country 
was crowded with human beings, to attend 
and witness the funerals of those whose 
bodies had been recovered. There was 
scarcely a house whose door-way, and whose 
interior, was not filled with mourners ; the 
public meanwhile weeping in sympathy with 
them. Cart after cart, with two and three 
coffins in each, attended by dense crowds, 
followed in long succession to the Wall's 
End burying-ground. After prayer and sing- 
ing, the writer and his friend, with multitudes 
more, attended the corpse of poor Crister. It 
was melancholy music. 

It may not be uninteresting to describe the 
ceremonies, or customs, which preceded in- 
terment in most instances, and which, it is 
understood, are prevalent throughout the pit 
districts. When death has occurred, two 
young men go around the neighbourhood 
apprizing the inhabitants that such a one is 
dead, and requesting their presence at the 
funeral at the time appointed. The young 
men who perform this service are called 
" askers." At the time appointed, the peo- 
ple invited proceed to the house of the de- 
ceased, dressed in their holyday clothes, and 
sit down. On the table is placed a cheese, 
and a supply of bread and ale. Portions 
of these are handed to the visiters by two 



156 wall's end miner. 

young women dressed in mourning, who 
are called " servers," and it is not unusual 
for the men to indulge in a pipe of tobacco 
in addition. This custom is, however, ob- 
served in silence, and with a solemnity and 
decorum befitting the melancholy occasion. 
When all the visiters have been " served," 
the coffin, containing the body, is brought 
to the door, and placed upon chairs. A hymn 
is then sung, after which it is borne to the 
grave, preceded by the " askers," with black 
scarfs over their dress, and the " servers" 
with white hoods. After the body follow 
those who mourn for the deceased, and the 
attendants bring up the rear. In the present 
melancholy instance, as has been observed, 
the bodies were taken to the grave in carts, 
but a black pali was in each instance thrown 
over the coffin. In some cases three were 
taken from one house, and the scenes of 
distress — the lamentation and wo — visible in 
every direction, it was impossible to view 
unmoved. The coffins were furnished by 
the owners of the mine, who also contributed 
£1 in addition for the interment of each body. 
The joiners were engaged on this, as on other 
days, in making coffins, and carts were em- 
ployed in conveying them from house to 
house. Thirty of the sufferers brought up 
during the day. 

Monday, 22d.— This day was devoted by 
the writer, in connection with Mrs. Reay and 
Mr. Leppington, to the work of visiting from 



wall's end mixer. 157 

house to house, in order to sympathize, pray, 
or converse with the bereaved families, as 
their cases might need. Three out of the 
four who had escaped on Saturday were seen, 
viz. Moralee, Reed, and Middleton. The 
faces of the old man and the boy were invi- 
sible, resembling balls of raw cotton, with 
which article they were covered, in conse- 
quence of their having been so much burnt. 
The old man spoke a little; and while in the 
act of speaking, the voice seemed as though 
it proceeded from an Egyptian mummy, 
swathed before the eye. The boy was doz- 
ing a little, but pert and incoherent when 
awake. J. Reed was recollected, grateful to 
God for his deliverance, though with the loss 
of a limb ; and adverted to the loss of his two 
sons with deep feeling. The families who 
had buried their dead were in some instances 
in deep gloom, and unable to weep, as though 
the fountains had been exhausted. Those who 
had their dead lying before them were often 
affected in away it is difficult to describe; 
and those who had not received the objects 
of their wishes, were looking for relief in 
that which was calculated only to increase 
their agony. Poor Reed was like one of 
those of whom it is said, " He that cometh 
up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken ;" 
he was only destined to live a short time — 
there was no escape ; he was spared till July 
4th, when he breathed his last. 

On the afternoon of this day, about sixty 



158 wall's end miner. 

bodies were conveyed in carts to the parish 
church, where they were interred ; and 
toward evening the whole of the bodies had 
been brought up, with the exception of about 
fourteen. Wall's End Church stands above 
the workings of the colliery ; so that, in taking 
into account the situations of the shafts, the 
" graves," like those of Ashur, were literally 
" set in the sides of the pit." 

This general visitation had an influence 
beyond that of exciting a mere feeling of 
sympathy. On such occasions, the vicious 
and the ill-instructed very often show their 
antipathy to their superiors, and seek to be- 
nefit themselves at the expense of the property 
and character of others, by exciting prejudice 
and creating disturbance. Mr. Buddie ex- 
pressed his surprise and pleasure at the man- 
ner in which the men conducted themselves, 
and the patience with which the calamity was 
borne ; but added to the gentlemen to whom 
he was speaking, " I understand the Wes- 
leyan ministers have taken great pains in 
visiting the families." Without attempting 
to take any credit beyond sheer duty, the 
writer could not but rejoice in the liberality 
of the sentiment, expressed by one who is 
respected as an authority and as a man of 
talent. — Five found. 

Tuesday, 22d. — Some of the young per- 
sons belonging to Bell's family were buried, 
and only one was supposed now to be in the 
pit. 



wall's end miner. 159 

Wednesday, 2±th. — One still remained be- 
low on the evening of this day ; and of all 
that had been found, not one had suffered 
through any fall of stone or coal from the 
roof of the workings. The one remaining 
was a boy, and was not found till Aug. 12th. 

CRISTER AND HIS CHRISTIAN BRETHREN. 

? Having taken a general view of the cala- 
mity, in the course of which references have 
been made to particular persons, it may be 
proper to advert more especially to the 
Christian character, with any other inciden- 
tal notice, of the companions of Crister. The 
following were members of the Wesleyan 
Methodist Society : — 

MEN. 

1. Joseph Lawson. 

2. William Crister, sen. 

3. Thomas Reavley. 

YOUNG MEN AND BOYS. 

1. Robt. Combey, joined society, Jan. 1834. 

2. John English', ' do. Jan. 1834. 

3. Wm. Crister, jun., do. April 1834. 

4. Thomas Ellerton, do. May, 1834. 

5. John Hall, do. May, 1834. 

6. C. J. Waggett, do. May, 1834. 

7. Robert Bell, do. June, 1834. 

8. Richard Bell, do. Oct. 1834. 
Not to select one, or more, from the list 

of the juvenile part of the sufferers, for the 



160 wall's end miner. 

purpose of farther observation, one subject, 
which is applicable to all, and which cannot 
but afford unspeakable pleasure, is, that on 
the testimony of their leader, who watched 
over them with tenderness and godly jea- 
lousy, not an individual among them ever, 
disgraced his Christian profession after his 
union with the Wesleyan body. From their 
upright walk, therefore, collectively, before 
the world, and their repeated declarations 
of a growth in grace, there is strong ground 
to believe, that as they all united themselves 
in a covenant to God, and entered the mili- 
tant church the same year, they were all ad- 
mitted into heaven the same day — nay, saw 
each other there the same hour. O, what a 
thought ! in a coal-pit and in heaven, with 
only the interval of a few minutes between ! 
With these, as with Crister, it was emphati- 
cally " down to death, and up to glory." 
The pit proved the tomb of each ; they de- 
scended into it living human beings, and 
came up glorified spirits ; — glorified, though 
invisible, — for, in the exquisitely wrought 
musings of Montgomery, — 

" The dead are like the stars by day, 

— Withdrawn from mortal eye, 
But not extinct, they move their way 

In glory through the sky ; 
Spirits from bondage, thus set free, 
Vanish amidst immensity, 
Where human thought, like human sight, 
Fails to pursue their trackless flight." 

Though the members of the establishment 



wall's end miner. 161 

are taught to pray against " sudden death, f 
and there is something terrific in it to the by- 
stander, as well as hazardous to the sufferer, 
yet on overstepping the grave — on rendering 
blank the space between, there is something 
still more transcendant and exhilarating in 
sudden glory, " For we know," says the 
apostle, " that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, w r e have a build- 
ing of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." No sooner is the 
soul dismissed the body, and so left naked, 
than the house from heaven comes instantly 
upon it, and clothes it. " We have" it is 
said — -intimating it to be so sudden in its 
operation, that we seem already to triumph 
in its possession. And this sense is confirmed 
by the context, where the inspired penman 
shows, that to be absent from the body is 
to be present with the Lord. There are 
some people who conceive of heaven as 
though it were far beyond the sun — some 
hundreds of millions of miles from the earth ; 
and this leads to other notions equally re- 
mote and absurd, as though it would take a 
considerable portion of time to reach the 
abodes of the blessed, and there would be 
some danger of the soul missing its way, 
when let loose, so to speak, into the immense 
regions of space, without the protection of 
some well -experienced/ angelic :iguHie. rodk 
writer of tfcfegtrfCB^^py.ilti&t^atcfeithifoskfcs 
ject by the 'apt dhrrile ^of -a lamp concealed 
11 



162 WALL'S END MINER. 

beneath an earthen vessel, and suddenly- 
emerging from its hiding place. — Let the 
interior of a spacious building be supposed 
to be illuminated — say, with nine hundred 
and ninety-nine lamps, all mingling together 
in one general blaze. Let an additional lamp 
be supposed to be concealed, as stated, be- 
neath a black earthen pitcher, brittle in its 
nature, and mean in its appearance. A per- 
son, who enters the apartment, is enraptured 
with the splendour of the scene — perceives 
the inverted vessel in a corner — and inquires 
why it is placed there ; when he is informed, 
that it awaits the removal of any one who 
may feel so disposed. The person goes- 
places his foot against it — when it instantly 
breaks. The moment, however, the cover- 
ing is removed, the lamp — before invisible, 
and beneath it, mingles with the general 
blaze. So soon as the one is demolished, the 
other appears ; there is scarcely an interme- 
diate space between the pitcher breaking, 
and the lamp uniting its lambent flame with 
those shedding their light around it. Just so 
with a disembodied spirit. Death no sooner 
deals his blow, than the " earthen vessel," 
or the finer porcelain clay, falls in pieces, 
and the soul, which is " the candle of the 
Lord," or, as it may be rendered, " the lamp 
of Jehovah," immediately enters the temple 
above — mingles with " the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, which are writ- 
ten in heaven" — with " the spirits of just 



WALL'S END MINER. 



163 



men made perfect. The child of God stands 
on the very threshold of heaven ; — another 
step, and he is in glory. O, yes, 

" Life, like a dome of many-colour'd glass, 
Stains the white radiance of eternity, 
Until death tramples it to fragments." 

Of William Crister, senior, little need be 
added to what has been advanced ; for it will 
have appeared, that of all that were borne 
hence by the flood of fire and damp and 
there were of the devout both old and young — 
net any of them had acquired the same de- 
gree of prominence in society, or occupied 
the same place in the public mind as him- 
self. He seemed to sit enthroned in the af- 
fections of all who knew him ; and his posi- 
tion was maintained to the close of his days, 
as it had been at first secured, — by piety. In 
different instances, on the family going to 
purchase articles for the funeral, the persons 
of whom the purchases were intended to be 
made, refused to receive payment, stating, 
as they were in memory of Crister, they 
felt a pleasure — though a melancholy one, of 
furnishing them gratis. Others less able, had 
to pay for the whole of the refreshments fur- 
nished on the occasion. Such was the respect 
paid to his memory, that many of the friends 
from Newcastle, Shields, and the neighbour- 
ing places, visited the house to see the life- 
less clay, which, when animated, had yielded 
them such pleasure to behold. So true it 
is, as " the Lord God of Israel saith — them 



164 wall's end miner. 

that honour me I will honour." Homer as- 
signs as the reason Patroclus was universally 
lamented— " He knew how to be good-natur- 
ed to all men." The Northumbrian miner 
proceeded farther in Christianity than hea- 
thenism could conduct its votaries. He was 
not only kind and inoffensive, but devout and 
useful. As a man of peace, he was generally 
beloved ; persons who cherished their preju- 
dices and little antipathies against the Wes- 
leyan body, indulged none against Crister ; 
he was not one of those who was hawked 
and torn by the malevolent ; and if he hap- 
pened, in the fidelity of his doings, to come 
across the worst part of human nature, in any 
one, such were the amiable qualities that he 
otherwise displayed, that every feeling of re- 
sentment was instantly subdued. No one 
could be found to say, " Let burning coals 
fall upon him : let him be cast into the fire ; 
into deep pits, that he rise not up again." 

One circumstance connected with his 
death, hitherto unnoticed, ought not to be 
omitted. He was first discovered among 
the s]ain of the Lord by a person of the 
name of John Green. Like " the captive 
exile" he had been " hastening, that he 
should not die in the pit." Several were ly- 
ing beside him where he was stretched upon 
the ground with his face downward, his 
elbows doubled, and his hands, with the 
palms outward, spread abroad like a fan, im- 
mediately before his chest, as he was wont to 



wall's end miner. 



105 



expand them, when engaged in prayer, or 
speaking on the subject of personal religion. 
A female observing this, after he had been 
conveyed home, and knowing his devotional 
attitude, exclaimed—' 4 Why, he looks as if he 
were praying down to the very hands yet !" 
Thus had they stiffened; and it was in this 
exercise, he, no doubt, closed his life — run- 
ning into the jaws of the very death from 
which he was fleeing, but showing in the 
words of the " Christian poet" already 
quoted — and whose writings will be found 
in the church of God to the end of time, that 

" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, 
The Christian's native air, 
His watch-word at the gate of death ; 
He enters heaven with pra3 T er." 

Thomas Reavley — another of the Wesleyan 
group — was born at Carville, in the year 1801. 
He entered, at an early period, the Sabbath 
school established in that place among the 
Wesleyans ; and there received impres- 
sions which w r ere never afterward obliterat- 
ed, and instructions which aided him in his 
Christian course. On one occasion during 
his scholarship he was induced to act the 
truant with some other boys. The teacher 
of course visited him, in order to ascertain 
the cause of absence. No sooner did poor 
Thomas see him than his conscience smote 
him ; he was ashamed, condemned, and stood 
rebuked before his instructer, but gave his 
pledge never more to absent himself wil- 



166 wall's end miner. 

fully, which pledge he maintained inviolate. 
It was not, however, till some time about 
1823, when he had become a husband and a 
father, that he first gave himself to God, and 
then to the church by the will of God. He 
had stood proof some years against the dic- 
tates of conscience, and against the remon- 
strances and advices of his best friends. 
When he became a father, the responsibility 
of that relationship dwelt with deep weight 
upon his mind. The seed sown in the Sun- 
day school began to put forth the blade, the 
ear, and the full corn in the ear. Every 
child was beheld in the light of an important 
trust received from God. He saw that he 
could not discharge the duty of a parent, un- 
less he himself possessed personal piety. In- 
struction and example were necessary in his 
early teachers, and equally so in himself. In 
his concern for his offspring, his concern for 
himself deepened ; and he at length became a 
decided Christian, exhibiting an example 
worthy the imitation of others. The spirit 
of piety in him was not a transient blaze, 
but a steady flame; — not an occasional im- 
pulse, but a uniform princrf le, enabling him 
to abound in the work of the Lord. As a 
suitable return for what he had received at 
the Sunday school, and from a desire to pro- 
mote the happiness of the rising generation, 
he became a useful and laborious teacher 
himself, and a constant attendant on the Sab- 
bath morning prayer-meeting, in order to 



wall's end miner. 167 

implore the blessing of God on the labours 
of the day. His Christian experience was 
always simple and profitable ; and in his 
class he generally expressed his assurance 
of the divine favour, accompanied with a 
grateful sense of his daily mercies. His 
mind, some time previous to his death, was 
unusually elevated, both with present enjoy- 
ments and future prospects, — as his prayers 
also, in the public meetings, had been distin- 
guished for their fervour. On the Sabbath 
morning prior to the catastrophe, he made 
some remarks in his class on the uncertainty 
of life, and the dangers to which he was ex- 
posed in his calling, closing with an assur- 
ance that whatever became of the body, the 
soul was safe. If we are to entertain a doubt 
of the eternal safety of such men as these, 
where shall " the ungodly and the sinner ap- 
pear !" God will never forsake the panting 
racer heaving his last breath — the weary pil- 
grim taking his last step — the aged warrior, in 
his last struggle ! 

Joseph — the peaceable Joseph Laws on — 
comes up like a patriarch in the rear. He 
was born at Colliery Dykes, in the county of 
Durham, in the year 1772, and was — as far as 
such a thing can be — a Wesleyan by descent, 
his parents having both been members of that 
society for many years. In some memoranda 
penned by himself, he observes, " When I 
was a boy, my parents took me to hear the 
Methodist preachers on the Sabbath; for 



168 wall's end miner. 

when I was left at home at any time, I was 
sure to profane it. The good spirit of the 
Lord strove with me often, and showed me 
that I was wrong ; then I was afraid of going 
to hell. My parents being poor, I was sent 
very early in life to work ; I had conse- 
quently a very limited education. This I 
have often had to deplore." 

He proceeds, * 6 In 1789, the family went to 
work at Bigge's-Main. We at first lived at 
Ouseburn. It was a bad place for me, and it 
was well that we resided there only about a 
year. We returned to Colliery Dykes ; at 
which place a Sunday school was begun in 
1790, to which I was sent, and began to learn 
my A — B, abs. A short time after this we 
removed to Wall's End Colliery. Here I 
entered into the marriage state, with a steady, 
careful, industrious young woman. The 
Lord blessed our industry, and we did very 
well. After this, we removed to Colliery 
Dykes again. The Lord was at that time 
working very powerfully upon my mind ; 
chiefly occasioned by a very narrow escape 
from imminent danger in the pits, in connect 
tion with four other men. I was afraid of 
both body and soul, and went to hear a ser- 
mon one Sunday in the Methodist chapel, un- 
der which I felt my mind much drawn out 
after God. Again we were removed to Wall's 
End Colliery. This was the beginning of 
good days to my soul." 

In speaking more immediately of those 



wall's end miner. 169 

" good days" he says, " I attended the means 
of grace at both church and chapel, till I was 
at length afraid to go to bed without family 
prayer. I had no intention of joining the 
Methodists at first, for I thought I could save 
myself in the church, as well as among them. 
One night, however, I dreamed that I was 
dying, and that my wife was standing over 
me, waiting to see me depart. I felt con- 
scious that devils would come and drag away 
my soul. I then thought I heard a voice, 
saying, ■ Go to a Methodist preacher.' When 
I awoke, that portion of Scripture came for- 
cibly to my mind, ' For God speaketh once, 
yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a 
dream, in a vision of the night, when deep 
sleep falleth upon men, in slumbering upon 
the bed ; then he openeth the ears of men, 
and sealeth their instruction, that he may 
withdraw man from his purpose, and hide 
pride from man.' I embraced the first op- 
portunity of going to chapel, and heard the 
late Rev. J. Doncaster preach on, ' I thought 
on my ways, and turned my feet into thy tes- 
timonies. I made haste, and delayed not, to 
keep thy commandments.' This was about 
the year 1802. I joined the society, being 
fully sensible that I was a lost sinner, who 
needed pardon. At first, however, I could 
not believe, and thought it impossible for any 
one to know his sins forgiven. But on hear- 
ing the Rev. Joseph Benson, my views were 
altered. I prayed earnestly for it ; and one 



170 wall's end miner. 

day, as I was returning home from Newcas- 
tle — praying and believing — I received the 
blessing of pardon. For the space of four or 
five years, I went on my way rejoicing. The 
Lord was kind to me, — carrying me in his 
arms, and scarcely permitting Satan to tempt 
me." 

In this account we perceive the workings 
of a simple, sincere mind ; and his simplicity, 
as his subsequent life attested, was not an 
amiable silliness, but that which might be 
supposed to characterize the " beloved disci- 
ple" in mellow age. Joseph, after a five 
years' walk of peace and joy, was called to 
pass through the fire, both as to personal and 
family affliction. He was married twice; 
and shortly after the death of his first wife, 
he was unable, through severe indisposition, 
to attend to his labour for the space of several 
weeks. His oldest boy was capable of work ; 
and some of his friends knowing his circum- 
stances, urged him to send another, about six 
years of age, to the pit. "No," he returned, 
" I am a poor man ; I have nothing to give to 
my family but an education : and that they 
shall have, if possible." To educate them, 
however, solely with a view to fill useful or 
important stations in civil society was not his 
object. He was attentive both to mind and 
morals, and was chiefly solicitous to educate 
them for eternity. His manner of maintain- 
ing the sanctity of the Sabbath is worthy of 
imitation ; and it is encouraging to find, in a 



wall's end miner. 171 

family so large, how effective were all his 
admonitions on the subject. 

During the last twenty years of his life, 
the following observances distinguished the 
Sabbath of God in his family. Exclusive 
of his own private devotions and readings, a 
hymn was sung and prayer was offered up 
after breakfast. Being a teacher, he then 
proceeded to the Sunday school, with as 
many of the children as were able to walk — 
all washed and decently attired ; a picture on 
which the Saviour would have smiled, had he 
passed in person, and which could not but 
have his approval in heaven ! The forenoon 
having been devoted chiefly to religious in- 
struction, he returned home with his lovely 
charge to dinner. Aware that Sunday schools 
only accomplish half their object, unless they 
lead to worship, he conducted them to the 
house of God in the afternoon, where they 
all heard a sermon. To render this more 
effectual, and by way of keeping up a con- 
nection in the mind between the homestead 
and the temple — between religion at home 
and religion abroad — the chapter was read in 
the family out of which the text had been 
taken, a hymn was sung, anc^ prayer again 
arose, like incense to the throne of God. On 
this occasion he prayed for the children indi- 
vidually, and adverted with peculiar feeling to 
their state, conduct, and circumstances. Cha- 
pel was again resorted to in the evening, 
where a second sermon was heard ; and the 



172 wall's end miner. 

hallowed day was closed by the family 
group encircling the domestic altar, where 
the father and priest of the house devoutly 
thanked his Maker for bringing him " a Sab- 
bath day's journey nearer heaven." Burns 
has sung the " Cotter's Saturday Night," and 
Grahame has sung the " Sabbath," but nei- 
ther of them have adorned their muse with a 
picture equal to this for simplicity, purity, 
and spirituality. 

A man like this was in no danger of be- 
ing suspected of being a mere " eye-servant" 
He was as much distinguished for his fidelity 
and devotion to the interests of his employers 
as to his God. In all his ways, both as to 
his civil and religious duties, he was remark- 
able for order m their observance, 'punctuality 
as to time, and a mild, peaceable demeanour, 
in their discharge. He, like Thomas Reavley, 
the Sabbath before the accident, spoke in the 
class of the happiness he had experienced 
that morning while engaged in family prayer : 
and his leader having to leave before the meet- 
ing was concluded, he was left to close the 
service. 

There is a circumstance connected with the 
death of good old Joseph, which, while it 
rendered it exceedingly painful, shows the 
imperfection of human foresight, and the 
way in which the providence and works of 
God often thwart the benevolent designs of 
man. He was what was termed a deputy 
overman, and was in one of the most danger- 



wall's end miner. 173 

ous parts of the mine, situated about five 
hundred yards east of the G pit shaft, or 
shaft which first exploded. Having heard 
the explosion in a distant part of the mine, 
while attending to his duty, and disdaining to 
seek safety in flight, so long as his young 
charge were exposed to danger, the obvious 
conjecture is, that he had, with all the order 
and prudence peculiar to him, hastily collect- 
ed the Davy lamps — hurried the older boys 
before him through the mine, " upon" 
whom were " fear, and the pit, and a snare," 
— and taking two of the lesser ones by the 
hand, proceeded with all possible expedi- 
tion toward the shaft. In this way he had 
travelled between three and four hundred 
yards from the place of gathering, and 
when within only about one hundred and 
sixty yards from the base of the shaft, a 
place of probable safety, he was met by the 
"after-damp," which at once put a period 
to his fears, his hopes, and his toils. There 
he was found, with eight boys and nine young 
men — two of the youngest on each side — two 
immediately behind, whose strength had ap- 
parently failed — and the remainder in front 
of him — unscorched ; — thus surrounded in 
death by several of those whom he had taught 
in the Sunday school in life, and who, through 
his tuition, had been directed the most ready 
way — whether in the moment of peril or se- 
curity—to " behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the .sins qf the world," And 



174 



wall's end miner. 



who can tell, in minds previously instructed 
and powerfully impressed with wholesome 
truth, what an " upward glancing of the eye" 
might effect, when the compassionate gaze 
of a Redeemer caught the last, piercing look 
of the sufferer — in which look the whole soul 
was lodged, and on its way upward ! Joseph 
fell like a shepherd, solicitous for the safety 
of his flock, in the hour of danger; and near 
him lay, not only the boys, but the lamps 
which they had used for the purposes of their 
occupation, and which it had been one of his 
last acts to collect ! Here they were lite- 
rally " gathered together," in the language 
of Isaiah, " as prisoners are gathered in the 
pit," and though " shut up" in death, the 
hand that closed the door held the key of 
heaven. 

Had not the shaft to which he was hasten- 
ing been choked with timber, the possibi- 
lity at least existed of deliverance; and this 
is one of the circumstances which render the 
death of so brave and humane a man so pain- 
ful. When the progress downward was im- 
peded by the timbers which had been shook 
out of their place by the explosion, the first 
expedient that occurred to Mr. Reay was, to 
secure a blacksmith's anvil, suspend it over 
the mouth of the pit, let it drop, and so force 
a passage to the bottom. But here two ob- 
stacles were presented ; first, the possibility 
of some of the men being alive below, and 
being killed by its fall ; and secondly, the 



wall's end miner. 175 

probability of dashing against the side of the 
cast-iron tubbing, so bursting it, and inun- 
dating the pit. It was not till one o'clock, 
therefore, on Monday morning, that the good 
old man was discovered ; and when the writer 
saw him in his shroud and in his coffin, in 
his own house, on the forenoon of the same 
day, in company with Mrs. Reay and Mr. 
^Leppington, he looked more like a venerable 
'apostle placidly sunk into a state of slumber, 
than a person in the arms of death ; — his 
excellent widow, surrounded by the family 
and friends in an adjoining room, mourning 
like a Christian, and meekly observing,—" It 
is kind of you to come to see me." 

Taking a view of the solemn event, as a 
whole, it must be evident to all who are 
disposed to improve the subject, that God 
has arisen, on the occasion, out of his place, 
and intends it as one of his manifestations 
to the neighbourhood. The language of the 
prophet may be appropriately quoted, " The 
Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man 
of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the 
rod, who hath appointed it." The broad scale 
on which the work of destruction was carried 
on, is proof sufficient that God aimed at 
nothing short of general impression ; and 
the conclusion is, that it should be succeeded 
by a general reformation. He has kindled 
a fire, and like Jerusalem of old, has " set" 
the neighbourhood "upon the coals;" but 
it is in order to purify it. 



176 wall's end miner. 

To the immediate friends and relatives of 
the sufferers, the divine Being speaks still 
more loudly. The voice of his judgments 
from afar, is, alas, but too often heard in soft 
whispers. Distance produces/both with re- 
gard to time and place, the same effect upon 
the mind that a remote sound has upon the 
ear. Hence, the destruction of a world by 
water — of the cities of the plain by fire — and 
of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by a purposely 
wrought earthquake, can be read without emo- 
tion. But when God enters the vicinity in 
which we reside, or the ho?rie in which we 
live, then is certainly the time, above all 
others, for bowing with reverence while he 
is passing by in the storm, and for profiting 
by the traces he has left, whether of mercy 
or of judgment. He never speaks, but to be 
heard ; never manifests himself, but to be 
seen; and this event calls for humiliation, 
resignation, watchfulness, and amendment. — 
" Therefore be ye also ready ; for in such 
an hour as ye think not the Son of man 
cometh!' 



;; boodiuodii-gian 

yVhwq o) ' - . 



wall's end miner. 



177 



LIST OF SUFFERERS AND SURVIVORS. 

{Seepage 118.) 



HOW EMPLOYED. 



WIDOW & CHILDREN, 



20 
12 
22 
20 
11 
22 
19 
16 
13 
20 
8 
15 
43 
20 
16 
12 
15 
10 
15 
13 
21 
19 
16 



Thos. Simpson 

Joseph Lawson 

William Crister 

Win. Crister, jun..., 

John Robson 

Andrew Robson 

Matthew Usher 

Peter Green 

Luke Mason 

Peter Mason 

William Mason 

Robert Mason 

James Miller 

Martin Brown 

Robert Clark 

William Dinning .... 
Bateman Dinning- .. 
Christopher Oving- 

ton, sen 

Christopher Oving- 

ton, jun 

John Stanness 

John Reaveley 

Edward Combey .... 

Robert Combey 

James Combey 

Francis Bell..' 

Richard Bell 

William Bell 

Robert Bell 

John Gillis 

Robert Roseby 

JohnLowry 

Cuthbert Reaveley. 

John Reaveley 

Thomas Reaveley .. 

John Hepple 

John Rosebv 

Joseph Roseby 

Joseph Roseby 

Christopher Roseby 

Henry Giles 

John Giles 

Andrew Giles 



overman widow 

deputy-overman widow 

deputy-overman \ father & j widow 

crane-man \ son / 

deput}--overman ) father & j widow 

trapper \ son ( 

trapper 

stone-stower 

putter 1 f 

■■•> brothers < " 

Z'J I """""" 



widow 3 



putter . 
putter 
putter . 

hewer ) brothers- , 

putter ) in-law j 

ru"ef::::::::::::::|^ersj 



door-keeper ( father & ( 

son. 
putter .. 
putter .. 
trapper . 
putter .. 

putter } brothers 

trapper 

crane-man .... 

putter 

rolley-driver.. 
rolley-driver . 

Patter mother 

trapper 

attending davy lamps - 

hewer \ ,„ . t 

putter (father* S £j££ 

helper-up ) sons ( _._- 

trapper "" 

putter ;."".'*.""."" j others | •■;•••• ~ 
rolley-driver .... ) brothers, cousins')' 
rolley-driver.... j of the above \ 
putter . 
putter . 
rolley-driver . 



brothers < 



> brothers > 



178 



WALL'S END MINER. 



HOW EMPLOYED. 



WIDOW & CHILDREN. 



brothers ; 



mother 
v idow 



widow 2 



12 Edward Combey .... rolley-driver — 

19 John Buddie putter ^ t — 

17 Michael Buddie putter > brothers < — 

14 Matthew Buddie .... putter ) ( — 

17 Henry Appleby putter ) brothpr „ j — 

11 James Applebyf trapper j Droxners j widow — 

72 Joseph Harbortle ...trapper — 

13 Thomas Swan rolley-driver mother 5 

15 Ralph Pendiington rolley-driver mother 3 

14 Thomas Ellerton ... attending davy lamps,.... 

19 John English putter — 

19 Roger Sharp putter 

18 Hutton Raite ., putter 

13 Christopher Raite .. putter 

53 William Thompson sinker 'j father & 

13 James Thompson .. driver ) son 

14 John Thompson rolley-driver 

19 George Kennedy .... rolley-driver 

23 John Croser hewer — 

12 Thomas Mason trapper — 

9 Thomas Green crane-man widow 5 

14 Thomas Reaveley . hewer ) father <$• j — 

31 John Reaveley trapper ) son ( — 

14 Thomas Moore helper-up ! brothers S ~~ 

12 James Moore way-cleaner j ( — 

11 Joseph Wright putter mother 4 

29 John Chicken putter — 

16 John Soulsby way-cleaner ( brothers S — 

14 George Soulsby trapper ) ( widow 3 

17 William Johnson... sinker — 

49 James Giles putter «■ — ■ 

18 Edward M'Nay putter widow 10 

75 Ralph Waggott trapper widow 3 

31 Matthew Soulsby .. onsetter ••• • — 

9 George Kyle trapper , mother 3 

21 John Waggott putter • — 

18 John Hall... putter ) brot hers "" 

11 George HaU putter ) ( 

10 Wanlas trapper 

24 William Reay hewer ) brothers ! 

28 Andrew Reay hewer ) t •••••• 

11 Thomas Huggup .... trapper mother^ 

19 David Collins putter 

15 Luke Watson trapper ••• — 

14 Francis Haxon trapper » — 

20 James Cousin putter ■ • ~" 

16 George Miller putter j brothers \ " ~~ 

12 John Miller trapper ) ( 

t This is the boy who, having finished his own work, bargained 

with another boy, who was anxious to visit the race course, to 
remain at work for him, as noticed p. 128 



mother 1 
widow 3 



wall's end miner. 179 

AGE. NAME. HOW EMPLOYED. WIDOW & CHILDREN. 

19 Thomas Sharp putter mother 2 

19 Edward Bell helper-up — 

16 Ralph Waggett driver , \ hrnthpv ~ 

14 John Ch. Waggett .. driver \ brotneii> 

17 William Patrick trapper ) hmfhp «. 

15 David Patrick trapper j Drotner* 

21 Robert Wilkinson .. trapper / hrn «.y. pre 

17 William Wilkinson, rolley-driver j DroLIiers 

13 Robert Dawson trapper — 

15 Percival Reedt way-cleaner ) hrnthpr<5 S — 

13 John Reed way-cleaner j oromers j 

t John Reed, the father of the above boys, was one of the four 
got out of the mine alive, and who, as noticed page 152, had his 
leg amputated. 

SUMMARY. 

Total number of men and boys dead 102 

Remaining alive 3 

105 

Women deprived of their husbands 17 

Widowed mothers deprived of their sons 8 

Number of children under the age of 14 left fatherless 48 
Total left unprovided for 73 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper procei 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

PreservationTechnologie 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATK 
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